Rahul Dravid has worked with almost all the youngsters in the 20-man squad.
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Former Indian cricketer Rahul Dravid will be travelling with the national team for the tour of Sri Lanka, in the role of a coach. Dravid believes that the selectors will be keeping a close eye on the performances of the players during the upcoming tour, considering the T20 World Cup set to be held soon. The 48-year-old at the same time refused to term a good display in the away tour of Sri Lanka as a certain way of getting selected in the squad.
“Obviously, it is a crucial tour.. (for someone like) Devdutt Padikkal, Ruturaj Gaikwad, or a lot of the younger boys who have come on this trip and would be extremely keen to do well, and set a marker for the selectors. Whether they’ll get selected in the T20 World Cup or not, that’s a call that the selectors and the Indian team management will take, and you know what their plans and strategies are,” he said during a press conference as quoted by Cricbuzz.
“But certainly good performances in tours like this against international oppositions would certainly (help) anyone – whether it’s Prithvi or so many other people. If you’re able to put a marker down or if you’re able to show that you have the ability to do it at this level against international quality opposition, that’s certainly something that selectors will take note of. From that perspective, it’s a crucial tour for a lot of people. It’s an important tour, (but) at the end of the day… it doesn’t mean if you don’t have a good tour of Sri Lanka that you don’t make it. And it doesn’t mean that just because you do well against Sri Lanka you’ll make it automatically,” added Dravid.
The former Indian cricketer admitted that it was a unique situation for Indian cricket to witness one team playing Test cricket in England, with the other indulging in a limited-overs tour to Sri Lanka.
“It’s very hard to predict what’s going to happen, even on a month on month basis. At least in the short term, to complete the engagements, something like this might have to be done. India probably had no option. Whether it’s a long-term solution, I’m not really sure. That’s going to require a lot of thought and discussions with a lot of people, a lot of stakeholders. It’s going to involve other countries, other country’s boards, organizers, television, media rights…there’s so much that goes into this. But certainly in the short term, with the kind of pressure there is on the players in terms of the quarantine, in terms of the rules, this certainly could be an option which could ease the pressure on a lot of players. I think it’s becoming pretty difficult for the same set of players to be going through the kind of restrictions that are in place at this point of time to be able to play all forms of the game. So yes in the short term; in the long term I think it’ll need a lot more discussions,” concluded Dravid.
