Sachin Tendulkar has lauded Rahul Dravid ahead of his first stint as Team India head coach for the upcoming limited-overs series against Sri Lanka. The batting maestro said that he will maintain a healthy atmosphere in the team and all the young players are familiar with Dravid so there will be a positive environment in the dressing room.
With Ravi Shastri busy with the Test side in England, the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) has bestowed the responsibility on the Dravid. The former India skipper has done an excellent job in the last couple of years building a system to ensure a smooth transition of the cricketers from domestic cricket to the international circuit.
Speaking on his first stint, Sachin Tendulkar is confident that his former colleague will be successful.
These players have spent enough time with Rahul, so they know him. A coach is someone who should keep a healthy atmosphere in the team and the dressing room, and Rahul will do that,” Sachin said.
The God of cricket also opined that until and unless they’re a massive weakness in the team players don’t need to be coached. As all the batsmen know to hit a drive and bowlers know how to ball outswingers. The legendary batsman also said that once the team has been under tremendous us pressure and is struggling that’s where the coach plays an important role.
He lauded the Indian team by saying they have a strong mixture of Experienced talented players like Shikhar Dhawan and young talents.
At this level, unless there are weaknesses, you don’t need to coach the players. They all know how to hit a cover drive or bowl an outswinger. When somebody is struggling, that’s when someone of his experience will play a role. Otherwise, the team knows what they are supposed to do. Shikhar Dhawan (skipper for the ODI, T20 series) has been around for 10 years. That’s a long enough period. The team is a nice mixture of experience and youth, and Rahul is around to help them without any doubt. – Sachin added
India to play 3 ODI and 3 T20i against Sri Lanka
The Men in Blue is all set to tour Sri Lanka for 3 ODI as well as 3 T20I this July with a completely different second-string squad, which is also called a white-ball specialist team. The team contains as many as 6 debutants and Shikhar Dhawan will lead the squad alongside his deputy Bhuvneshwar Kumar.
The first ODI will begin on 13th July at Colombo and T20I will start from 21st July.
India’s squad: Shikhar Dhawan (Captain), Prithvi Shaw, Devdutt Padikkal, Ruturaj Gaikwad, Suryakumar Yadav, Manish Pandey, Hardik Pandya, Nitish Rana, Ishan Kishan (Wicket-keeper), Sanju Samson (Wicket-keeper), Yuzvendra Chahal, Rahul Chahar, K Gowtham, Krunal Pandya, Kuldeep Yadav, Varun Chakravarthy, Bhuvneshwar Kumar (Vice-captain), Deepak Chahar, Navdeep Saini, Chetan Sakariya