We know we have to keep improving but will carry this momentum into World Cup: Rahul Dravid

Rajkot, Sep 28 (IANS) India head coach Rahul Dravid expressed satisfaction with India's readiness for the upcoming ICC Men's Cricket World Cup, after the 2-1 ODI series win against Australia, despite the Indian team facing a defeat in the final match.

Dravid seemed highly impressed with the performance of Jasprit Bumrah, KL Rahul, and Ravichandran Ashwin in the series. He said that it was important for the all those players to get some game time ahead of the World Cup

"For people like Jasprit, Ashwin, Shreyas, KL, getting game time was important. The fact that they have been able to get that and getting that against a competitive side is a good thing. The practice games or warm up games are generally people play 15 vs 15 so it's tough to get that level of intensity in those games," Dravid told reporters after third ODI on Wednesday.

"Its been great that Jassi (Jasprit Bumrah) got a couple of games, and bowled his quota of 10 overs. Siraj suffered from a bug but got back and was able to bowl today. It was good to see how Ashwin bowled in the first two games. KL and his keeping through fifty overs, returning after 6-7 months, has been great. Shreyas has got some good knocks in the last couple of games.

"I think there are lot of tick marks... really happy with how things are going. We know we are gonna get better and hopefully we can keep the momentum going into the World Cup."

Shreyas Iyer coming back after a back injury, played a match-winning knock of 105 off 90 deliveries, in the second match of the series while Rahul also made a stunning return to international cricket after a right thigh injury layoff by smashing 111 not out against Pakistan in Super Four match of victorious Asia Cup campaign. He built up on this by making a match-winning fifty in the ODI series opener in Mohali.

Dravid expressed contentment with the performance of his players who had returned from injury or other breaks. "There are always areas you want to improve on, and we have ticked a lot of boxes. It's nice to see that the guys who have been out with injury, been away from a while, from our perspective, they've been able to get some good cricket, been able to spend time in the middle, get some runs, take some wickets, but there are always little things that you can improve.

"It's going to be a tough, long tournament. We're constantly looking to improve as a team, even when we have results going our way."

The 50-year-old also confirmed that the squad will assemble in Guwahati on September 28 or 29 for the first warm-up fixtures, scheduled on September 30.

"We've had a few issues with viral (fever) going around the group. It was a balancing act in this game, because of people going home for personal reasons. I'm expecting everybody to be there at Guwahati by 28th night or 29th early morning, and hopefully the bug going around the ground has cleared up as well," Dravid said.

India will begin its World campaign on October 8 against Australia at the MA Chidambaram Stadium in Chennai.

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