New Delhi: VVS Laxman, the National Cricket Academy's head and India's stand-in coach for the ODI home series against South Africa, stated that selecting the ideal team for the 50-over World Cup, which will be hosted in India next year, would be challenging. He stated that all of the young folks are doing really well, and the competition is fierce, so they are spoilt for choice. Laxman's remarks came before India's first One-Day International (ODI) against South Africa in Lucknow.
VVS Laxman could be extremely thrilled with India's team versatility heading into the 50-over World Cup the following year. Even though the team could not manage to win the opening ODI of the three-match series against South Africa, the players appeared to be in good spirits.
As Sanju Samson and Shreyas Iyer are yet to secure their position in the Indian ODI squad, they have shown tremendous professionalism and maturity in their respective game forms. Laxman believes that the selectors would have a difficult time picking India's ODI team for the 2023 World Cup.
"It's worked well so far as a backup coach, it started from the Ireland series, the one England T20I (1st match), and the Zimbabwe series. Obviously, need to cover up for Rahul Dravid given his work commitments and the T20 World Cup coming up now," stated Laxman during an interview with host broadcaster Star Sports.
"We have a good bunch of cricketers, they are all looking forward to the series, the competition between them is good, and we are spoiled for choices considering the amount of talent we have. It'll be difficult for the selectors to get the right team going into the 2023 50-over World Cup," he added.
Laxman went on to say regarding the competitiveness within the Indian squad that "All the youngsters are doing well, they know that they'll not get too many opportunities once the main players return, but this is a chance to perform well and keep themselves in the hunt when the strongest side is being picked."