India vs Sri Lanka: Good for the boys to come out of quarantine and get moving, says Rahul Dravid

By ANI

COLOMBO: Rahul Dravid, Team India head coach for the Sri Lanka tour has said that it is great that his side is able to come out of quarantine in Sri Lanka and finally start training ahead of the limited-overs series.

The Indian contingent first spent 14 days in quarantine in Mumbai and upon landing in Sri Lanka, the touring party spent a further three days in hard quarantine.

“It has been nearly 17-18 days that we have been in some sort of quarantine. Really good for the boys to get out and just get moving a little bit. A nice little area in front of the lawn before we practice tomorrow, we have an open space,” said Dravid in a video posted on the website of BCCI.

Talking about coming out of quarantine, pacer Bhuvneshwar Kumar said: “Everyone was excited to come out, fun activities are happening. Everyone is enjoying it, this is the first day that we have gotten out and it is important that team bonding happens.”

Team India’s white-ball squad trained in Colombo for the first time on Friday as the Shikhar Dhawan-led squad geared up for the upcoming limited-overs series in the island nation.

Sri Lanka and India will square off in three ODIs and three T20Is, beginning July 13. While Bhuvneshwar has been named vice-captain, Dhawan will lead the team which will be coached by former India skipper Dravid.

The likes of Sanju Samson, Ishan Kishan, and Suryakumar Yadav are in the white-ball squad and many more youngsters are eyeing a debut for India in the Sri Lanka series. In the pre-departure press conference, Dravid said he hopes the white-ball squad is able to give good performances so that they are able to knock the doors of selectors for a call-up for the T20 World Cup which is set to be played later this year in UAE.

“There are a lot of people in the squad who are pushing for places or looking to cement their places in the sort of T20 World Cup. But the key goal for everyone in the squad and in the team is to try and win the series, we have had discussions around it. That is the primary objective. We are going out there to win the series, hopefully, people get the opportunity to put in good performances in the course of us trying to win the series, and knock the doors of the selectors,” said Dravid while replying to an ANI query.

Speaking about leading the side for the first time, Dhawan said: “So it is a great honour for me to be the captain of the Indian team. I am looking forward to it, I have played under Rahul Dravid’s coaching once, I was the captain of India A at that time, we had played against Bangladesh. I feel we guys think together, we are looking forward to the series, we will be looking to build positive things and there should be a very happy environment in which boys can express themselves and we get the best out of them.”