Rahul Dravid did not let us indulge in our adventurous side, says Kamlesh Nagarkoti

02/23/2018

Kamlesh Nagarkoti has revealed, in an interview, that Rahul Dravid did not allow any of the U-19 squad members to indulge in their adventurous side which led them to the U-19 World Cup title. He also said that he and his teammates were scared to break the curfew set by Dravid.

Kamlesh Nagarkoti has lived a perfect dream as the 18-year-old went on to win the U-19 World Cup under the able guidance of Rahul Dravid. His dream ride didn't end there as he was bought by KKR in the 2018 IPL auctions for a whopping 3.2 crores. He now gets the opportunity to work with the likes of Jacques Kallis, Simon Katich, Mitchell Johnson and Mitchell Starc in the KKR side. In a recent interview, Nagarkoti revealed some of the dos and don'ts set up by Rahul Dravid that enabled the Colts to win the World Cup in New Zealand.

Nagarkoti recollected when Dravid did not let them indulge their adventurous side. The fast bowler along with fellow pacer Shivam Mavi and Kalra were giving an interview atop a mountain in Queenstown and were tempted to indulge in “adventure activities there”, but the coach, Nagarkoti said, did not allow that, reported the Mumbai Mirror.

“He said the tournament was going on, and there was no point in taking any risk. He would allow us to do a few things here and there, but we had to be back in our hotel by a certain time,” Nagarkoti said.

Dravid had always been the most disciplined of the cricketers in the history of the sport and the youngsters were scared of him and never wanted to break the curfew set by the coach.

“Actually we were a bit scared of sir. And we thought we should not break the curfew, so we never did it. Honestly, we didn’t. Well, we did think about it a few times but then we reasoned that ‘nahi yaar, sir would have had something in mind when putting a curfew in place, so let’s follow it’, adding that he hopes to take a late night stroll in Australia sometime in the future,” said the 18 year old.

The youngster concluded the interview by saying that his father's words of compliments after the World Cup win was the most memorable memory for him.