Rahul Dravid
Wasim Jaffer has heaped praise on former India batsman Rahul Dravid for his efforts to provide the national side with 'match-ready' youngsters. Dravid, current NCA (National Cricket Academy) chief, has worked with many talents including Shubman Gill and Washington Sundar who are a part of India's Playing XI in the on-going Gabba Test against Australia.
In a tweet where commentator Harsha Bhogle acknowledged Dravid's work as a mentor and coach, Jaffer responded by pointing out collective efforts of Dravid, skipper Virat Kohli, head coach Ravi Shastri and bowling coach Bharat Arun.
"He could have analysed game from comm box but he decided to analyse and help out talented youngsters to ensure the supply of match-ready talent isn't disrupted. This success is also a result of collective efforts of Rahul Bhai, Virat, Ravi Bhai & B Arun past few years," wrote Jaffer.
Washington Sundar, who earned his maiden Test call-up on Friday, had worked with Dravid in the Under-19 team. In fact, it was Dravid who had suggested Sundar to tweak his role to a bowling all-rounder.
“I am essentially an opener but when I joined the India under-19 team, Rahul Dravid Sir asked me to bat in the middle-order and wanted me to bowl off-spin a lot more. I adjusted to the role,” Sundar had told Sportstar.
Sundar, on his Test debut, removed the dangerous Steve Smith for his first wicket in the longest format of the game. He ended the day with figures of 1/63. Apart from Sundar, the likes of Shubman Gill, Mayank Agarwal, Rishabh Pant, Navdeep Saini and Mohammed Siraj have closely worked with Dravid.
India will be eyeing to clean up Australia's batting set-up when they come out on Day 2 at the Gabba. At stumps of Day 1, Australia reached 274/5 after 87 overs, with skipper Tim Paine and Cameron Green remaining unbeaten at 38 and 28 respectively. Marnus Labuschagne starred with the bat scoring 108 while debutant Natarajan, who took two wickets, was the pick of the bowlers.
