Different squads for separate formats is short-term solution: Rahul Dravid

Mumbai: Former India skipper Rahul Dravid has opined that separate teams for different formats are a short-term solution to easing the pressure on the cricketers during the coronavirus pandemic. His comments come in after India have a separate squad in England while the other will be flying out for Sri Lanka shortly.

The likes of Sanju Samson, Ishan Kishan, Suryakumar Yadav, Shikhar Dhawan will be on the Sri Lanka tour for the white-ball series. Another set of Indian players who all recently featured in the inaugural World Test Championship (WTC) final against New Zealand will now lock horns with England in the Test series.

Dravid said it is very hard to predict whether such a concept in the Indian team set-up would continue in the future. “This is a unique situation in terms of the quarantine and travel restrictions. It is very hard to predict what is going to happen on a month-to-month basis (with COVID-19),” Dravid said in the pre-departure press conference.

Keeping the COVID-19 situation in mind the stand-in coach said it is hard to foresee things as of now. Also because of the pre-planned cricketing commitments that India had no option but to resort to this practice to fulfill its obligations.

“When the travel between countries becomes restricted this could be done in the short term. India didn’t have an option but to do this. Whether it is a long-term solution? I am not sure. For that, it will need a lot more discussion with all stakeholders including other boards, sponsors, media rights, and so on,” he added.

Dravid, who will be coaching the Indian team for the limited-overs series in next month said pressure on all-format are increasingly difficult with all the restriction of the current situation.

“It does ease some pressure on the all-format players as it is becoming increasingly difficult for the same set of players to get through the restrictions that are in place. There are a lot of people in this squad who are pushing for places or looking to cement their places in the World Cup coming up, but I think the key goal of everyone in the squad and in the team is to try and win the series,” he added.

The three T20s against Sri Lanka hold more importance than the ODIs as it will be the last set of international games India play before the T20 World Cup. The Sri Lanka series starts with the ODIs from July 13, followed by T20s from July 21.