Preferring to be “realistic”, Rahul Dravid – head coach of the squad (featuring mostly India’s white-ball specialists and reserves) travelling to Sri Lanka under Shikhar Dhawan’s leadership – said it may not be possible to give every member of the squad playing opportunity during the upcoming series.

India will be playing three ODIs and as many T20Is during their tour of the island nation.

“We have a really big squad here of 20 players, so it’s going to be unrealistic to expect us to give everyone an opportunity in such a short tour. Hopefully, people can get the opportunity to put in some really good performances in the course of us trying to win the series and give themselves the best chance to knock on the doors of the selectors (for the T20 World Cup),” Dravid said at the pre-departure media conference on Sunday.

“I’m sure the selectors and the team management have a fair idea by now as to the kind of squad they are looking for. The (remaining matches of) IPL will also be held in the lead-up to the World Cup.”

A couple of selectors (Debashish Mohanty and Abey Kuruvilla) will also be travelling with the squad to Sri Lanka. “It gives me the chance to interact with them and see what their thinking and ideas are.

“I will probably touch base with the team management in England some time over the next couple of weeks and see what they are thinking about the T20 World Cup, and whether we can implement some of that in these three games,” Dravid emphasised.

‘A’ tours 

Dravid, who also looks after the India ‘A’ and U-19 teams, said that the much-beneficial ‘A’ tours can only resume once the pandemic situation improves.

“Over the course of the next few months, if things improve, we can then start the ‘A’ tour programme as it’s critically important for a lot of the development that we do. Boys are missing out as they are not able to play. But only when things improve, we can have conversations with other Boards about the ‘A’ tours,” Dravid stated.

‘Happy environment’

For skipper Dhawan, having a “happy environment” in Sri Lanka will also be as important as focusing on winning each and every game. “I’ve played under Rahulbhai’s coaching once, for India A, in Bangladesh. I was the captain there.

“I feel we guys think together, the entire support staff and the team. We hope to build a lot of positives in the team and there should be a very happy environment where the boys can be themselves and express themselves, and (that is how) we get the best out of them,” Dhawan stressed.