England and India are doing better than Australia in identifying talents, opines Greg Chappell
Greg Chappell has opined that England and India, over the last few years, are doing better than ‘historically best’ Australia in identifying and bringing talents to international cricket. Chappell also credited Rahul Dravid for picking cues from the Australian structure and creating a solid pool.
India’s incredible comeback series win over Australia 2-1 perfect represented the country’s scouting system, where the cricketing board has created a system for an endless pool of talent to come through. The likes of Mohammed Siraj, Axar Patel, Navdeep Saini, Washington Sundar and Shardul Thakur have all come out of the system to help India during the series win over Australia and England.
Historically, it was Australia who had created such a system, something that allowed them to rule the roost in international cricket, with three World Cup wins on the trot. However, former Australian cricketer Greg Chappell has opined that both England and India are currently doing better than Australia in developing young payers and keeping them in the system.
"Historically, we've been one of the best at developing young players and keeping them in the system, but I think that's changed in the last couple of years," Chappell told 'cricket.com.au'.
"I think we've already lost our position as the best at identifying talent and bringing it though. I think England are doing it better than us now and India are doing it better than us."
Chappell also singled out former Indian skipper Rahul Dravid, who also coached the Indian U-19 team earlier before heading the National Cricket Academy (NCA), as the reason behind India’s replication of the Australian system.
"India have got their act together and that's largely because Rahul Dravid has picked our brains, seen what we're doing and replicated it in India and with their much larger (population) base."
He also pointed to India’s win against Australia and noted how the Indian youngsters were unfazed by pressure.
"When you look at the Indian team that played in the Brisbane Test that had three or four fresh players, and everyone said, 'This is India's second XI' – those guys had played (extensively) for India A," said Chappell.
"And in all sorts of different conditions, not just in India. So when they get picked, they're not tyros at all, they're quite hardened international cricketers," he pointed out.