India has lost the third ODI cricket match to South Africa by four runs and with that the series was also lost at 0-3. However, impressed by the all- round performance of Deepak Chahar and Shardul Thakur, India head coach Rahul Dravid wants to add depth to the team by giving more chances to these players.
On Sunday, in the third ODI, Chahar managed to take two wickets including that of in-form Janneman Malan and Aiden Markram to help keep South Africa under 300-run mark. He scored five fours and two sixes in his 34-ball 54 to nearly pull off the win.
During a post match interaction, Dravid said, “I mean Deepak Chahar has shown in the opportunities he has gotten with us in Sri Lanka and over here well, he has got some really good ability with the bat. We know what he can do with the ball as well. I have seen him at India A as well and I know he can bat really well so certainly gives us a lot more options."
Further, he said, “It is nice to have people like him and Shardul Thakur as well, who we have seen in the last couple of games, contribute with the bat as well. So, obviously, the more and more players like this who can contribute lower down, certainly makes a big difference and give us more options. So, certainly we would like to give Deepak more games along with Shardul and lot of other people who can step up in the course of next year or so and give us depth in the side."
Explaining further, Dravid said that he thinks this ODI series has been a good eye-opener for the team. They have not played a lot of ODIs, this has been his first stint with the ODI side. Even the team itself has not played many ODIs after the 2019 World Cup. He feels lucky that they have got time to prepare more before the 2023 World Cup. "We will get better, there is no doubt that. We certainly good do better with the batting in middle overs, we understand the template and we know a large part of that template is also dependent on the balance of your squad", he said.