His official designation states that Rahul Dravid is the coach of the India U-19 team. But it would be grossly unfair to limit the former India captain’s role merely as a coach of the young brigade. To a pool of talented youngsters, Dravid is also their mentor, friend and an elder brother. He is someone who has charted a career roadmap for them, the first step of which is the upcoming ICC Under-19 World Cup in Bangladesh from January 27.
The India legend does not want to burden the boys with the sole goal of winning the trophy, but to use the tournament to get closer to the bigger goal of breaking into the senior team in the future. “My message to them is to focus on actually improving and getting better, to grow as a cricketer and see this World Cup as an exposure they are getting at a very young age,” said Dravid at the pre-departure conference in Mumbai.
Dravid, who stressed on the importance of performing in the domestic cricket and earning recognition of the selectors, added that trimming India’s squad to 15 from a pool of 30 players was a challenge. “The biggest challenge for me was to select the best 15 players out of 30 because of the amount of incredible talent we have. We rotated the squad a lot for the last few months and gave opportunities to different players.”
India, who have won the tournament on three occasions, in 2000, 2008 and 2012, are placed in Group D with Ireland, New Zealand and Nepal. Dravid said he was not too focused on the opponents. “At the U-19 level, you don't have a lot of knowledge about other teams. I am not focused on who we are going to play against. We have a lot of talent in the group. We are covered in all the departments. We have very good spinners, all-rounders and we bat up to No. 8. It is now about executing our skills and performing under pressure. If they play up to their potential that I have seen in the last two months then we need not worry too much.”
The Indian team will be led by Jharkhand’s wicket-keeper batsman, Ishan Kishan. Incidentally Dravid, who played three World Cups for India, kept wickets in South Africa during the 2003 World Cup. He, however, made it clear that Delhi’s Rishab Pant would keep wickets in Bangladesh. “Both Ishan and Rishabh get into our XI and keep wickets. They are both left-handers and are good friends as well, and are similar in some ways. Rishabh will keep wickets. Ishan is a brilliant fielder so he can also focus on his leadership.”
Ishan, who has played seven List A games and 10 first-class games, said spending time with India captain MS Dhoni during Jharkhand’s Vijay Hazare Trophy match was memorable. “Dhoni was telling me what to do in pressure situations, what to do when you need wickets. It was very good talking to him,”he said.
The 17-year-old said the boys enjoy working with Rahul Dravid and other support staff members comprising Paras Mhambrey (fast bowling coach) and Abhay Sharma (fielding coach).“He is fun loving. It did not take much time for us to gel with him. His words have a lot of value. We would try and execute whatever advice he would give us in the matches that we played,” Kishan said of Dravid.
The India U-19s played practice matches against Board President XI at the Cricket Club of India in Mumbai before leaving. Dravid said his advice to the boys was to keep rotating the strike. “I have stressed a lot on rotating the strike, which pulls the pressure down from one individual. We had played on very good wickets over the last couple of months. But you may not get 300-plus wickets in Bangladesh. There will be 240-250-plus wickets. They have learnt to rotate the strike, but they can always get better and improve,“ he observed.
Dravid added that the present generation was blessed with the ability to clear the fence. “The biggest advantage is that all of them can play big shots and the distance they cover is incredible. They are in a generation where they are practising playing the big shots and some of the sixes they hit boggle the mind.”
