BENGALURU: Be it underperforming seniors, raw talent waiting in the wings or rising stars, ask them who their go-to man is in Indian cricket and the answer is most often the same. Rahul sir.
In June 2015, when
Rahul Dravid was appointed coach of the India Under-19 and ‘A’ teams, he changed the perspective of the development squad, bringing it into spotlight and lending it weight and gravitas.
From providing opportunity to out-of-form players to find their touch to grooming bench strength, the last five and a half years have seen Dravid, now the National Cricket Academy chief, emerge a key figure in the backroom set-up.
A runner-up finish at the U-19 World Cup in 2016 was the beginning. What followed was a series of home and away matches for the India ‘A’ squad, which offered cricketers opportunity and exposure in equal measure, and took away the mystery, fear and awe surrounding alien lands and conditions.
Since 2015, many stars have emerged, among them
Rishabh Pant, Shubman Gill,
Prithvi Shaw,
Mayank Agarwal, Mohammed Siraj,
Washington Sundar, Shardul Thakur and Navdeep Saini.
Cheteshwar Pujara is among the several cricketers to have endorsed the benefits of cutting-edge conversations with the former India skipper.
Pujara, the braveheart who endured telling body-blows during the Brisbane victory on Tuesday, turned to Dravid after a dismal patch in England and Australia in 2014-15.
“He said there was nothing wrong with my technique. He watched me bat in the nets and told me there was a big one coming very soon. That gave me a lot of confidence and I decided to stick to what I do," explained Pujara, after scoring a century as opener in Sri Lanka the same year.