"It will be very difficult for Rohit Sharma and Rahul Dravid to play with a settled unit" - Saba Karim on Team India's selection conundrum
Saba Karim believes it would be tough for captain Rohit Sharma and head coach Rahul Dravid to play with a settled Indian team in the ODI series against the West Indies.
Team India have been hit hard with COVID-19 cases hitting the camp. Moreover, vice-captain KL Rahul will miss the first ODI due to personal reasons, and will only be back from the second game onwards.
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KL Rahul will be unavailable for the 1st ODI Against West Indies
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Reflecting on the development during a discussion on India News, former India wicketkeeper Karim highlighted the selection dilemma for Sharma and Dravid. He explained:
"Rohit will have to think if he will play Ishan Kishan at No. 4 or he will wait for KL Rahul and play someone else. So you will see a lot of changes. It will be very difficult for Rohit Sharma and Rahul Dravid to play with a settled unit."
The former India player termed the series against West Indies a challenging one for the captain-coach duo. Karim reasoned:
"The second thing is that West Indies are also coming out of such a phase; they have also invested a lot in youngsters, and all of them play with an open mind. So I feel it will be a challenging assignment for Rohit and Rahul Dravid."
Kieron Pollard's West Indies are coming into the limited-overs series against India after a T20I series win against Australia. So Team India can take the visitors lightly at their own peril.
"Rahul Dravid knows how to counter these difficulties" - Rajkumar Sharma
Virat Kohli's childhood coach was also asked about the challenges Dravid has had to face since he took over as Team India's head coach. He replied:
"It is unfortunate that such difficulties are coming in front of him as soon as he joined. But Rahul Dravid is very intelligent, and he knows how to counter these difficulties."
The former first-class player expressed optimism about Dravid overcoming these hurdles. Sharma reasoned:
"He has a lot of coaching experience as well because he was managing the India A and junior team for a long time. It is a different thing that is the senior team where the difficulties are of a slightly different type, but I have full hope that the sort of character he has, he will overcome these difficulties."
"Just don't lose hope."
Sachin Tendulkar has expressed his opinion on the combination of coach Rahul Dravid & captain Rohit Sharma.
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Team India have been bogged down by multiple issues of late. They suffered reversals in both the Test and ODI series against South Africa, with Virat Kohli also moving on from the captaincy role in all three formats. The positive COVID-19 cases ahead of the West Indies series have now only compounded their problems.