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The Indian team is all set to face arch-rivals Pakistan in the upcoming Asia Cup on September 2 in Pallekele. The 17-man squad (bar the players on Ireland tour) were part of the camp that took place from August 24 and after some intense practice and net sessions, head coach Rahul Dravid looked satisfied when it comes to the preparations. Injury returnees KL Rahul and Shreyas Iyer have also responded well but the former is out of the first two matches of the tournament.
However, Dravid looked impressed with Iyer’s fitness who is coming back after a long injury layoff. He was happy with Iyer’s performance in the training camp where he ‘ticked all the boxes’ according to the head coach. Moreover, Dravid also felt that game time is more important for Iyer now and the cricketer looks set to bat at number four in the upcoming matches.
“He has looked good. He has had no issues. It’s pretty straightforward – he has come and he has played. It’s now just about us giving him some game time. One of the things he has missed is games and matches. It’s something we can give him in Asia Cup and build him up for the World Cup. In terms of fitness, everything he has done well in the camp – he has batted, fielded well, ticked all the boxes.
“Except of course the game time. He has played some practice games, but that’s not like the real thing like international cricket. Fortunately, we’ve got some game now with Asia Cup and a few games with Australia to top that up and give him the opportunity to tick that box as well,” Dravid said in a pre-departure press conference.
Rahul Dravid was also happy with the fact that all the first-choice players were fit and available after a very long time. “With the white-ball team, this is the first time we’ve had a camp where everyone has been able to come together. We had a few days where we’ve come a couple of days earlier before matches. To have this access to very good facilities, to work on very specific stuff, got a lot of very specific match simulation stuff done over the last few days. We finished off with a session today but there were a lot of specific things done,” Dravid added.
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