India vs Australia: 'These decisions are made in discussions with...,' Rahul Dravid on resting Virat Kohli, Rohit Sharma

The upcoming ODI series between India and Australia will be the final bilateral commitment for both teams before the World Cup gets underway in India on 5 October.

Both teams are looking to finalise their plans for the World Cup. However, the Indian selectors, headed by Ajit Agarkar, decided to rest seniors in the side, including Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma, for the first two ODIs against Australia.

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The duo, along with Hardik Pandya and Kuldeep Yadav, will return for the third ODI, and while there have been a few fans on social media who have criticised the move to rest senior players, head coach Rahul Dravid clarified on the issue.

Dravid said that most of these decisions were made in consideration with the players themselves.

“I think with people like Virat and Rohit specifically, from our perspective, it is really important that we get them to that first game of the World Cup in the space (physically and mentally) they want to be in. You know at this level, the amount of cricket they play, they know how they need to prepare themselves,” Dravid said at the pre-match press conference In Mohali.

“And a lot of these decisions are made in discussions with them. In an effort to try and get all our players, obviously not the two of them, certainly the senior and the more experienced guys kind of have their routines and know what they need to do to get into that first game just in the right frame of mind,” added Dravid.