Vikram Rathour confirms India head coach Rahul Dravid's presence with team for 3rd ODI against SL

Thiruvananthapuram (Kerala) [India], January 14 (ANI): India's batting coach Vikram Rathour cleared the air regarding Rahul Dravid's health and mentioned that the head coach is not facing any health issues.
The batting coach provided an update on Dravid's availability for the final ODI of the three-match series and confirmed the head coach's presence with the team in Thiruvananthapuram.
"He is absolutely fine boss, don't know where this news came from. You want him to take some rounds of the ground and set up some fitness tests for him. He is there, he is there inside," Rathour said at a press conference.
Speaking on the team's preparation for the upcoming World Cup that is scheduled to be played in India, he said, "Twenty games are enough if we can shortlist our players and focus on them for the World Cup. As team management, we do understand which players we need to look at and focus on. If we have that clarity, 20 games are more than enough. Just some areas to fine-tune and 20 games are enough for that."
Rathour stated that the third ODI gives the team the opportunity to make improvements with the World Cup not being far and ruled out the final ODI to be a dead rubber for the hosts.
"This being a World Cup year we are still looking to improve. There are a lot of areas we are still working on, this is again one more opportunity to do that and we look forward to that tomorrow," expressed the former India player.
The batting coach highlighted the importance of batting contributions from the lower middle order and mentioned that the team is looking to improve on the aspect.
"It's very simple, they need to bat more in the nets. The more they bat the better they become. We encourage them to keep batting in the nets. It's not an area of concern but we would like to get better at it. If we can get more runs from the lower order it will be great. Constant work is being done regarding that," said Rathour.
Providing clarification on Ishan Kishan's role in the Indian ODI setup he said that the left-hander has been picked as an opener but could play in the middle order if the team requires to.
"At the moment he has been picked as an opener and that is the slot he has been picked for. But again, we are quite flexible as a batting order and if the management feels that Ishaan is required in the middle order that may happen," clarified the batting coach.
The former Indian player talked about Suryakumar Yadav's inclusion in the test squad for the Border-Gavaskar trophy against Australia and said he has great potential and has been in great form recently in T20Is. "Great to have him in the reserves and hopefully when the opportunity arrives he will make the most of it and do well for the team."
The Indian team has clinched the ODI series with wins in Guwahati and Kolkata ODIs. They will be looking to clean sweep the ODI series when they face Sri Lanka on January 15 at the Greenfield International Stadium, Thiruvananthapuram. (ANI)