It is always a great advantage for the young aspiring cricketers to have Rahul Dravid as their coach. Dravid has all the experience and he has played a big role in guiding the youngsters to the right path. The Wall has been churning out the young generation of cricketers and he has been instrumental in giving the right confidence to the players. Meanwhile, the hunt to get the Under-19 players has once again begun.
The Under-19 A and B teams locked horns with each other in Thiruvananthapuram. The Under-19 B team was able to beat the A team by 72 runs in the final of the Quadrangular tournament. Meanwhile, Rahul Dravid was happy with the tracks which were on offer.
Rahul Dravid has been the perfect gardener who has helped the young flowers to blossom.
Dravid said the whole idea was to expose the young prodigy players to the challenging wickets which will help them cream out the top players.
“The quality of the wickets was really good at both the venues. They were challenging for the batsmen. The bounce was exceptional. Our whole idea was to expose the boys to bouncy wickets so that they play not just on flat wickets and then we can see who can stand up and perform when the conditions are challenging,” said Dravid as quoted by PTI.
Dravid revealed that they went on to see around 45 players in action. Consequently, they will shortlist around 30 players and will try to groom them for the Under-19 World Cup. India Under-19 side is the defending champions of the World Cup as they had defeated Australia in the final, which took place in New Zealand.
In fact, the bowlers went on to dominate the tournament as the score of 200 was crossed only on five occasions.
“We saw almost 45 guys over the course of the four-day and one-day games. We are not really looking to give individual attention at this stage. This was a selection sort of a tournament before we narrow in on the top 30-40 players.
“It is a stage where we are looking to identify players. It is going to be exciting to work with them leading to the U-19 World Cup,” Dravid added.
Meanwhile, Rahul Dravid has done a great job in flowering the young players and he would like to continue the same.