WATCH! Have narrowed it down to 17-18 players for ODI World Cup - Rahul Dravid

He is more than happy with the takeaways from the nine home ODIs that the Indian team has played and has already narrowed his World Cup core team to 17-18 players, head coach Rahul Dravid said on the eve of the series decider against Australia.

India are going into the decider, having already played eight home games -- three versus Sri Lanka, three versus New Zealand and three against Australia finishing on Wednesday.

Also read: IND vs AUS 3rd ODI: Series on the line as Team India looks to resolve batting woes

Did he achieve what he had set out to in nine home ODIs, keeping World Cup in mind? "We have to a large extent. We have got a lot more clarity at the end of these nine games, irrespective of what happens tomorrow. We need to keep building on that clarity.

"For us, it is now the different playing XI combinations and just ensuring that we play different combinations at times just to ensure that we are able to do that in the World Cup and we are not surprised by anything in the World Cup," Dravid told media persons here on Tuesday.

This leg of home ODIs were very important as the players will now get into IPL and after that there is the big WTC final, followed by a tour of West Indies and a possible Asia Cup in Dubai.

"Probably not going to get too many more games in our conditions. We had the opportunity to play in these conditions which is great. Yeah, coming out of the IPL to a large extent we are pretty clear about the kind of squad and the players we want. We have narrowed it down to 17-18 players." Injuries to Jasprit Bumrah, Iyer, Prasodh Krishna, Deepak Chahar does remain a concern but Dravid insisted that the team is in a good head space.

The head coach rued the absence of an injured Shreyas Iyer, who had been earmarked to bat at No. 4 in the World Cup. The coach at the same time was sympathetic towards Suryakumar Yadav, who hasn't yet set the ODI stage on fore unlike T20 format.

"Obviously. it is unfortunate for Shreyas to get injured. He is probably one of those guys who would bat at No.4 and given a lot of time at that position. If you notice we have stuck to the people in positions. For two years leading into this run, there is a lot of T20 cricket played and we did not have a lot of one-day cricket and if there are injuries and all that, we do have options." But does Surya's first-ball ducks isn't really worrying Dravid.

"Not really concerned about Surya. He got two very good balls. One of things about Surya is that he is learning the 50-overs game. The T20 is slightly different. In T20, he has played 10 years of IPL.

"He (Surya) has played a lot of T20 cricket. He has played a lot of high pressure T20 games. Even though he has played a lot of t20 cricket I think he has not played a lot of one-day cricket. We need to give him some time and be patient with it. We certainly see the upside of him doing well."