Delhi, India: Team India head coach Rahul Dravid acknowledged that juggling between the three formats has been difficult and that a lack of a full-strength squad has been a problem after consecutive ODI series defeats against Bangladesh and New Zealand.
Bangladesh took an unstoppable 2-0 lead over India in the second one-day international in Dhaka on Wednesday, which India lost.
"I guess from our point of view, playing has not been easy. We don't have full crew. We hope to have the full team ready to play in the home series starting in January, depending on injuries. "Hopefully, we will get to play a settled squad in those nine ODIs before the IPL," Dravid stated at the post-match press conference. "We have three ODIs against New Zealand, three against Sri Lanka, and three against Australia.
Dravid is of the opinion that by January, India will most likely have an all-star ODI team, which will then consistently play for the next eight to nine months in preparation for the World Cup, which will be held at home in October and November.
"Because there were two World Cups, we had given T20s a lot of priority in the past two years. We will place ODI cricket first for the next eight to ten months. It's hard to keep up with three formats.
Dravid added, "Now, our white ball boys (specialists) will get some rest with Test matches."
Due to workload management-related permutations and combinations, India's ODI performance has been poor with very different squads.