Rahul Dravid Reckons Conducting 'A Tours' Consistently Gives Fringe Players A Lot Of Confidence

Rahul Dravid, former Indian captain and the current head of the National Cricket Academy [NCA], has reckoned that conducting ‘A’ tours on a consistent basis had helped a great deal in giving fringe Indian players the necessary confidence besides keeping them stay focussed on their game.

Rahul Dravid has been actively involved in nurturing young Indian cricketers ever since he retired from the game. During his stint as India A and U-19 coach and even now as NCA chief, the former Indian captain has always been vocal about staging more India A tours, and we have seen an increased amount of such tournaments being played, which has helped players in getting exposure to a plethora of varied conditions.

“It does give people a lot of opportunities. Going on a tour they know that they are guaranteed some games, that they’re going to get some opportunities. We try and have at least three, if not four, India A tours in a year. In that case, all these boys know that when they perform they’re going to get a fair opportunity to push for [a place] in the India team,” Rahul Dravid told Indian Women Cricket team coach WV Raman.

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Giving more opportunities to players who have been doing well helps them greatly: Rahul Dravid

Dravid also added that giving more opportunities to players, who have done well, helps them to take their career to new heights. The former India A and U-19 coach also went on to give examples of current Indian cricketers, who have benefited because of this policy.

“When you’re doing well and are given more opportunities, who knows where that can take you. And you’ve seen that in the recent results: someone like a Hanuma Vihari, Shreyas Iyer, Manish Pandey and even some of the bowlers like [Mohammad] Siraj, [Navdeep] Saini, [Shardul] Thakur, and a lot of these boys coming through have had that opportunity and have been able to show the selectors, ‘hey, look, pick us, we are here and we can perform at this level’.” Dravid added.

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