The head coach also touched upon the issue of the No. 4 spot and all the talk surrounding it, saying that injuries to K.L. Rahul, Iyer and Rishabh Pant, unfortunately coinciding in time, have forced the team management to try other mid-level players in recent times and this is not experimentation for the sake of experimentation.

That word (experiment) is used all the time without any meaning. That doesn’t mean we experiment for the sake of experimenting, sometimes there are specific reasons for it. Places #4 and #5 are discussed a lot, and it seems like we didn’t have clarity on who would be there. I could have told you 18-19 months ago who were the three candidates for those two spots. The choice was always between Shreyas Iyer, K.L. Rahul and Rishabh Pant. There was no doubt, Dravid said.

It’s unfortunate that all three have been injured for two months. What are the odds of that happening? All three guys vying for those two spots have suffered serious injuries, they had to go under the knife. So you have to react to that, put other people in those positions and see who can handle it. Just in case they’re out of shape at the World Cup. We have tried a few people in that situation, he added.

While Pant is still out of action after suffering multiple injuries in a horrific car crash on the Dehradun-Delhi highway last December, Iyer and Rahul injured their back and hip in March and May respectively.