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But head coach Ravi Shastri thinks that the Indian team is far from ready for the World Cup. In a chat with Times of India on the eve of the 6th ODI, Shastri said, “We’re far from ready. This is a great win. But there’s a lot of work to do over the next few months.”
The next few months will lead to the tour of England, where India is slated to visit post the 2018 Indian Premier League (IPL) and there — England will host the next year’s World Cup — “a picture could begin to emerge,” says the India coach.
In fact Shastri highlighted on the misfiring middle-order, and is not convinced with the way they performed throughout the ODI series. “It’s an area that requires work to be done. The top-order has batted beautifully and our bowlers were phenomenal but the fifth, sixth and the seventh slot in the batting order needs to be worked upon. Once we’re done with this series, we’ll have to sit down and weigh all options once again very carefully,” he said.
“I’ll be the first to admit our middle-order batting has looked ordinary. We failed to convert good starts into big totals. So, there are factors we’re looking at. At the same time, there are players back in India who’ve been doing well in domestic cricket. Over the last six months, we had conveyed (to those who are potential India caps) what the team will be looking at, in terms of skills, fitness, challenges etc. Once this tour concludes, it’ll be time to revisit those conversations,” Shastri added.
The head coach was also quick to point-out at the good work done by the bowlers in the series. He said, “(Yuzvendra) Chahal and (Kuldeep) Yadav have been brilliant and Boom (Jasprit Bumrah), what can I say about him. It’s been a fantastic effort. As I said, we’ll sit and go through all of this once we’re done here.
“The most important bit? Look at the middle-order. If we can work on that and improve, there’s no stopping this Indian team.”
India vs South AfricaiplKuldeep YadavRavi ShastriSouth Africa vs India 2018virat kohliyuzvendra chahal
First Published: February 17, 2018, 9:27 AM IST
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