‘Indian team finally set for World Cup 2019 – Ravi Shastri’

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Ravi Shastri, head coach of the Indian cricket team, has made it clear that there will not be further ‘chopping and changing’ with the ODI side with just 13 matches left before the opening World Cup game against South Africa on June 5. Shastri indicated that from now on, they will be playing around those 15 players, who are going to board the UK bound flight.

Team India head coach Ravi Shastri.

Speaking at the pre-departure press conference ahead of the Australian tour, Shastri said, “We will try to play (those) 15, who will go to the World Cup. Chopping and changing is over now. The grace period is over now.”

“Now it is the time to really get focussed and play as a unit and then hopefully not have too many injuries so that we don’t have to look elsewhere and take it from there. We don’t have too many games now. We have 13 games so we will look to play the best team at all times,” he added.

The 13 games include three-match series against Australia followed by five-match series against New Zealand. The tour of  Australia will commence on November 21 with the first T20I at Brisbane.

“I see a lot of progress across all formats and I say that inspite of the (series) scoreline in England. When you look at actual performances in conditions that are foreign to us, we are more than happy,” he said.

“It is a learning process. If we learn from the mistakes that we made in South Africa and England, it will hold us in good stead in Australia. Test cricket obviously is different, it is the last series that we play before the World Cup. So the focus will be entirely on the series,” he concluded.