World Cup 2023 IND vs NZ: Hard to replace him, says Dravid on Hardik Pandya

India coach Rahul Dravid believes it would be difficult to replace Hardik Pandya in the 11th match, who is out due to injury ahead of the important World Cup match against New Zealand.

Speaking at the pre-match press conference on Saturday, October 21, Dravid said: “(He) is an important player for us and he is an important all-rounder, so he really helps us balance our squad well. But he will miss this match, so we will have to work around that and see what the best combination is and what we can best come up with.”

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What would be the team combination for India?

Talking about the Team India combination, he said that the management has many different combinations that they can try. “We will have to see what works best for these conditions and these wickets. But yeah, probably it doesn’t have the kind of balance that we probably used in the first four games,” Dravid said.

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“We can definitely opt for the three fast bowlers or the three spinners. With that kind of combination we could still play him (Shardul Thakur) and Ash (R Ashwin) and bring up Jadeja (Ravindra). We are quite clear about what our play 11 is tomorrow. But I wouldn’t want to give away too much,” Dravid added, saying they would look at the wicket early in the morning and then decide who to play against.

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Both India and New Zealand remained unbeaten in their first four matches. They will compete against each other at the HPCA Stadium in Dharamsala on Sunday, October 22.