Sanjay Manjrekar identifies Rahul Dravid’s greatest strength as a coach

Former Indian cricketer Sanjay Manjrekar believes that Rahul Dravid has the most influence as a coach when he is handling and shaping young talent. As a result, despite India opting for several fresh faces for the upcoming five-match T20I series against South Africa which begins on June 9, it won’t be too big a challenge for him to manage expectations.

The first of the five matches will be played at the Arun Jaitley Stadium in Delhi on June 9. The selectors had named an 18-member squad without the usual big guns like Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli, and Jasprit Bumrah, who Dravid also believes deserved and needed rest. As a result, a fresher looking squad was announced under the leadership of KL Rahul.

However, on the onset of the match, Rahul sustained an injury along with Kuldeep Yadav and both players have been ruled out of the series. The leadership has been handed over to Rishabh Pant who will be the second youngest Indian to make his captaincy debut for the country after Suresh Raina. The fact that Pant will be able to do it on his home ground in Delhi makes it all the more special. He will be assisted by vice-captain and recent IPL-winning leader Hardik Pandya.

During an interaction with News18, Sanjay Manjrekar was quizzed whether Dravid’s greatest challenge during the series will be managing expectations.

“I think he will be very good at that. He is one of the most intelligent cricketers that I have come across, Rahul has always been worldly-wise, a very intelligent person, so that aspect he will handle beautifully and that’s why he was so good at the junior level as well. Handling young players is his greatest strength.

“Rahul will be doing his best with whatever he can control, which is mostly off the field, picking the right XI, maybe tactics during breaks and in all that you can expect him to be at his best.”

The former Indian batter was appointed as the head coach after extremely successful and dedicated stints with the Under 19, India A sides, as well as serving in the National Cricket Academy in Bengaluru for several years. He has worked extensively alongside players like Rishabh Pant, Shreyas Iyer, Ravi Bishnoi, and Arshdeep Singh among others.