India have already ticked most of the boxes going into the World Cup.
Wednesday’s final ODI of the series against Australia in Rajkot was billed to be a dress rehearsal for their campaign opener in Chennai on October 8 but the unavailability of some of the key men will act as a dampener.
They will be without Axar Patel, Shubman Gill, Shardul Thakur, Mohammed Shami and Hardik Pandya. While there is no official word on Axar’s status following a left quadriceps strain since the Asia Cup, the others have been either rested or are unavailable for personal reasons.
Only 13 players are available, Rohit confirmed on the eve of the match. “Gill rested. Shami, Shardul have gone home. Hardik has been home. Again, personal things,” he said at a media conference.
“Axar obviously is not available for this game. We’ve got only 13 players to choose from. And there’s a bit of viral going around so there’s a bit of uncertainty in the team as well, which we cannot help.”
The focus will again remain on Ravichandran Ashwin after his superb spell in the second game in Indore which helped them wrap up the series. Rohit though didn’t reveal much ahead of the selection of the final XV for the World Cup on Thursday.
“Ashwin has got the class. He has got the experience of playing the sport and handling the pressure. It is just that he has not played ODIs in the last year or so,” the Team India captain said.
“But you cannot take away the class and the experience the individual has over the years and in the last couple of games we saw how well he bowled.
“He has got a lot of variation up his sleeve and in case there is a chance, we can look at a lot of things. Hopefully, the way things are at this point, it does well for us because we have got all the backups ready. We have given them enough game-time,” he said.
Rohit, who was rested for the first two ODIs along with Virat Kohli, will be back and expressed happiness with the success.
“I am very happy with the last 10 ODIs that we played. A lot of guys came back into form (by) scoring lots of runs and the bowlers are taking lots of wickets. In the last few games, we saw the guys who came back from injuries have proven their fitness,” he said.
“(We are) pretty much settled…how we stand, where we stand.”
