Rahul, who had a niggle, will keep again in Bangalore with the National Cricket Academy (NCA) and will probably be assessed once more on September four forward of the Super four stage of the Asia Cup.

“He’s had a really good week with us. Really done well, done a lot of things. He’s progressing really well on the route that we want to take. But he will be unavailable for the first part [of the Asia Cup], for the Kandy leg of the trip. The NCA will be looking after him for the next few days while we are travelling,” Dravid mentioned on the pre-departure press convention.

“We will reassess on September 4 and take it from there. But the signs are looking good and he’s progressing really well. He will be unavailable for the first two games,” he added.

The return of Rahul will probably be essential for India not simply from a wicket-keeping perspective but in addition within the center order the place he has shone at No.5. In 18 matches within the middle-order spot, Rahul has aggregated 742 runs at a mean of 53 and a strike fee of shut to 100.

In his absence together with Shreyas Iyer and Rishabh Pant due to accidents, India have had to scramble to discover excellent candidates heading into the World Cup.

The experimentation got here underneath scrutiny many instances however Dravid defended their selections that got here underneath dire circumstances.

“Just to give you an example, the No.4 and 5 spots seem to get discussed and talked about a lot, and it gives the impression that we don’t have clarity on who was going to be there, but to be very honest with you, I could have told you 18 or 19 months ago who were the two or three candidates who we were looking at for No.4 and 5 slots,” Dravid mentioned.

“It was all the time going to be between Shreyas, KL and Rishabh for these spots proper from 18 months in the past. Obviously, it’s unlucky that each one three of them in that place ended up with accidents within the house of two months. What are the percentages of that taking place? Nobody can calculate for that.

“And not small injuries, right? Serious injuries. All three of them have had to go under the knife and have had operations. It’s good to know that at least two of the three have got to a point where they’ve recovered and should be available for us,” he added.

India’s Asia Cup marketing campaign kicks off on September 2 with a high-voltage conflict towards Pakistan in Kandy. Two days later, they may face off towards Nepal within the ultimate group-stage encounter.