Experimentation in ODIs will continue, says Sridhar

“The way we look at every game is that we take something into the next game and the remaining part of the series. I think the way the last game shaped up was a wonderful learning curve for us,” Sridhar said. 

“Even before the series started, we all knew that there was going to be some experiments from us going ahead over the next 18 months. It has been a great learning. 

“Akila Dananjaya bowled brilliantly in the last game. We take that forward, and we’ll make sure we won’t repeat the same mistakes going forward. 

“We wanted give the other players a hit because Rahul hadn’t batted in the middle in a one-day game so we wanted to give him that opportunity. It was just an experiment. (But) It won’t stop. We will try out different players in different slots to get the best exposure to get the best out of each player. That’s the endeavour of the team management,” he added. 

Former skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni was among the few players who came for practice. Sridhar outlined that Hardik Pandya has recovered sufficiently from cramps and is available for selection for the next game. 

“MS leaves no stone unturned to make sure he is at his best going into every game. He knows his body best and he knows what he needs to do. He is such a thorough professional.

On Thursday, Hardik Pandya was cramping. He’s perfectly alright now. He should be ready for the next game,” Sridhar said. 

Along with fitness as a prime parameter, India also aim to be the best fielding unit on the field, as skipper Virat Kohli had put it before the second ODI. As such, Sridhar’s task in this long limited-overs’ schedule as well as in the build-up to the 2019 ODI World Cup is cut out. 

“There is no dearth of motivation as far as the players here are concerned because the biggest motivation is that they are representing the country. As far as differing fielding drills: it all depends on the workload. If someone is playing five or eight games on the trot, we are very careful with workload,” he added.