We're trying to get as much cricket as we can, says Rahul Dravid
India A and India U-19 coach Rahul Dravid has stated that they are trying to get the team to play as many matches as they can in order to improve their skills and experience. Recently, India B performed exceptionally, defeating Australia A in the finals of the Quadrangular series.
According to mentor Rahul Dravid, this year has been good for the India A and India U-19 squad. After a successful campaign in England, the teams performed quite well in the Quadrangular series. Further, they will be clashing with Australia in two Test matches, scheduled next month. Dravid was thankful to BCCI for placing a constant stream of matches for the team as he believes that it will help diminish the gap between domestic and international cricket.
“It has been a good year. Obviously the tour of England was probably an added bonus which you get once in three-four years. The A team programme is pretty solid. We're trying to get as much cricket as we can. For me it's really good step up from the first-class domestic cricket where a lot of these boys play in and score runs. It's a good sort of... you can bridge that gap between domestic and international cricket,” Dravid told bcci.tv.
“The quality of cricket is better, we're playing against an Australia A team here which has got about 10 internationals, the South Africans brought a lot of international players. So pretty good opportunity for a lot of these young players who have performed in domestic cricket to test themselves against
Dravid has mentioned that while focusing on the selection of potential players, they also aim towards the overall development of players. He states that their motives are wider than just concentrating on picking appropriate players for the national team. They want each and every player to succeed and develop.
“There is a certain level of communication obviously with the selectors, and obviously they communicate with the Indian team there as well. So we do work, our main aim of A team cricket is to develop good players for the national team," he explained. "If the national team is winning then we're all winning. That's the whole idea of this thing, so there are times when we're discussing the kind of players they're looking for not only in the short term but also in the long term. We see if we can develop those players in the A team. At this level it's sometimes more about the development,” he said.
“To be honest I don't get into the selection things too much but yes, the players we see here, we're happy to chat with them about some of the skills that we as coaches here at the A team level see that they maybe need to step up or work on. We're happy to give them the opportunity to work on them if we can,” Dravid added.
Dravid mentioned that sometimes they are faced with complicated situations arising from the selection procedure. The support staff and he has to handle those issues sincerely. For instance, when Prithvi Shaw got selected for the Indian Test squad, Mayank Agarwal was left behind.
“It's something we deal with on a day to day basis. A lot of the guys who come here, let's not forget, they're all performers. You don't get to India A not having performed. They're all guys who have done well at the domestic level and aspiring to play for India. And it does happen, sometimes people just miss out. It's just the nature of the game and nature of the beast that we play in. For us, at least from my perspective, it's to keep the focus on improvement and not so much on selection.
“There are challenges and there at times when you need to have conversations with people, keep them going and sometimes push them. Sometimes selectors make a decision and take a call on A vs B, and it's hard to choose.
Cricket FootBall Kabaddi
Basketball Hockey
SportsCafe