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Former captain and NCA director, Rahul Dravid is widely credited for generating India’s talent pool at the under-19 and A level. Dravid said that during his stint as coach with these teams, he made sure that every cricketer who toured got a game, unlike his playing days. He will be the head coach of Shikhar Dhawan’s led team that will tour Sri Lanka for a white-ball series next month. He never travels with the A and under-19 squad but it was he who made sure all the squad members played on tours.
Dravid informed ESPNcricinfos’ The Cricket Monthly that he told the team upfront if they come on the ‘A’ team tour with him, the team will not leave there without playing a game. He has had that personal experience himself as a kid of going on a tour with the ‘A’ team and not getting the opportunity to play was terrible. He further said “You’ve done well, you scored 700-800 runs, you go, and you don’t get a chance to show what you’re good at. Then you’re back to square one from the selectors’ point of view because the next season you have to score those 800 runs again.”
Dravid added ” It’s not easy to do that, so there is no guarantee you’ll get a chance again. So you tell people up front that this is the best 15 and we are playing them. This is not about the supposed best XI. At under-19, we make five-six changes between games if we can.”
Rahul Dravid was addressing all of this to the junior team to aware them that everyone will get a chance to play.