Following India’s 5 runs defeat by Bangladesh in the second one-day international on Thursday, India coach Rahul Dravid attended a press conference after the game. In addition, he shed light on the players’ injury status throughout the series, including captain Rohit Sharma.

“We are struggling with a few injuries, which is not ideal for us. Kuldeep, Deepak and Rohit will certainly miss the next game. Kuldeep and Deepak are out of the series. Rohit will certainly miss the next game, fly back to Mumbai, consult an expert and see how it is. Whether he will come back for the Test match, I am not sure. Keh nahi sakte hai, but they will not play the next match”

Dravid said.

Skipper Rohit didn’t emerge to open subsequent to harming his elbow while handling in Bangladesh’s innings. He decided to walk into the middle of the field after the seventh wicket fell, but he clearly looked uncomfortable. Rohit did make a brave decision to leave with a left thumb that was heavily taped, and in the 46th over, he got two sixes and four from Ebadot Hussain.

In the 49th over, Mahmudullah struck two sixes, bringing the total down to 20 from the final six balls. After giving up two fours and a six, the clever Mustafizur was able to defend that.

“It was phenomenal, I think for hi to show that level of courage. He had a serious dislocation, had to go to the hospital to get that set right, stitches in his hands, a couple of injections. Credit to him, to have that kind of determination and go out there to take a chance and it was amazing how close he brought us with that innings.” 

Dravid said, talking about the innings

”We had our chances but credit to them (Bangladesh), especially Mehidy has played a fantastic series. The first match and this one as well. Different kinds of innings and both of them were really good. They were able to score 100 runs in the last 10 overs which was probably the killer for us. But yeah, we had our opportunities but credit to them. They played well and yeah, they got the right result.” 

he said, On the match,

When asked about India’s lack of wicket taking abilities in the middle-

“Obviously this is the time we are looking at different options in different tours. There was a tour in New Zealand and there’s a tour here, 2-3 days later. So I guess from our perspective, it’s not been easy. We don’t have the full squad but hopefully from January onwards, depending on injuries, we should have our full squad around and that’s something that we will look at. The opportunity to see how we take wickets in the middle. I thought we did well today but yeah, there was the phase when that partnership built. Good learnings for us and good learnings in these games. Once we are able to select from our full squad in January, we can hopefully look to address some of these issues,”

Dravid said 

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“We have nine ODIs before IPL (3 vs NZ, 3 vs SL and 3 vs Aus) and hopefully, we will get to play a settled squad in those games. In the last two years, we had prioritised T20s a lot as there were two World Cups. In the next 8-10 months, we will be prioritising ODI cricket. It is not easy to juggle three formats. Now, our white ball boys (specialists) will get some rest with Test matches being played,”

Dravid added.

Team India practice: What is in store?

• India are dealing with an injury crisis with only 13 players available.
• Captain Rohit Sharma is out, with vice-captain KL Rahul in charge.
• Deepak Chahar and Kuldeep Sen are also out of the series.
• Shahbaz Ahmed is certain to make a return in Chattogram.
• Ishan Kishan, Rahul Tripathi and Rajat Patidar fight to replace Rohit
• Extended net sessions after disappointing collapses in both games.

On Saturday, KL Rahul‘s position as a batsman is still unknown. In both games, he continued to play in the middle order, with Virat Kohli opening the batting on Wednesday. With scores of 73 and 14, the stand-in skipper had mixed results in the two games. As a result, he might reclaim his position at the top without Rohit.