Rahul Dravid hopes to keep momentum going after Australia series win

India may have lost the third and final One-Day International (ODI) against Australia by 66 runs, but their wins in Mohali and Indore ensured that they took the series 2-1. Speaking of the result, India head coach Rahul Dravid is pleased with the performance of players like Jasprit Bumrah and Shreyas Iyer, who are returning from injuries and hopes to keep the momentum going. 

Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli and Kuldeep Yadav returned to the XI after being rested for the first two games on a batting-friendly surface in Rajkot, but Axar Patel was not fit to take part, further putting his World Cup participation in jeopardy. India have the option of turning to Ravichandran Ashwin or Washington Sundar if Axar does not recover in time.

"For people like Jasprit, Ashwin, Shreyas, KL [Rahul], getting game time was important, and getting that against a competitive side is a good thing. The practice games are generally 15 vs 15, so it's hard to get that level of intensity in those games," Dravid told reporters after the third ODI in Rajkot.

"Jasprit got a couple of games and bowled his quota of 10 overs. Siraj suffered from a bug but got back and was able to bowl today. It was good to see how Ashwin bowled in the first two games. KL and his keeping through fifty overs, returning after six months, has been great. Shreyas has got some good knocks in the last couple of games. Really happy with how things are going, and hopefully, we can keep the momentum going into the World Cup."

Dravid is also happy to have ticked plenty of boxes during the series. "There are always areas you want to improve on, and we have ticked a lot of boxes," he said. 

"It's nice to see that the guys who have been out with injury, been away from a while, from our perspective, they've been able to get some good cricket, been able to spend time in the middle, get some runs, take some wickets, but there are always little things that you can improve.

"It's going to be a long, tough tournament. We're constantly looking to improve as a team, even when we have results going our way."

India will play a couple of warm-up games ahead of their World Cup campaign, which kicks off against Australia on October 8 in Chennai. Dravid has confirmed that the rest of the Indian squad for the mega event will assemble ahead of the first warm-up game against England in Guwahati. 

"We've had a few issues with viral [fever] going around the group. It was a balancing act in this game because of people going home for personal reasons and a team leaving for the Asian Games tonight, so some guys like Rutu and Tilak had to join that team. I'm expecting everybody to be there at Guwahati by the 28th night or 29th early morning, and hopefully, the bug going around the ground has cleared up as well."