Dravid pleased with 'bench strength' being developed for India

[The Unrealist]

Quote

http://www.espncricinfo.com/story/_/id/23981244/rahul-dravid-pleased-bench-strength-being-developed-india

Rahul Dravid, the India A coach, has hailed the "bench strength" being developed for the senior side ahead of next year's World Cup after his players secured victory in the tri-series final on Monday. Led by a strong bowling performance and Rishabh Pant's unbeaten 64, India A overturned England Lions' home advantage for the second time in a week to make it four wins in a row and take the trophy.

 

Victory at The Oval had several authors, as has been the case all series. Deepak Chahar claimed 3 for 58, including a wicket with the new ball and that of Sam Hain, the Lions centurion; Khaleel Ahmed also picked up three wickets, while only Krunal Pandya, who removed Liam Livingstone for 83, went at more than a-run-a-ball. Pant then sealed the chase with a sprightly half-century, after 40s from Mayank Agarwal and Shreyas Iyer laid the platform on a sometimes-tricky pitch.

Overall, India A had four hundreds by three batsmen - Agarwal, with two, was second only to Hain in the run-scoring charts - and four players averaging more than 50. They also piled up a record 458 for 4 in a warm-up match against Leicestershire. With the ball, Chahar claimed 10 wickets at 14.70, while Shardul Thakur, Khaleel and Axar Patel also impressed in unfamiliar conditions.

"I think we've got a really strong bowling attack at the moment, with the India side, a lot of variation and depth, and it's nice to see we've got another batch there in case of injuries"

With the 2019 World Cup taking place in England, Dravid said he had been encouraged by the strides the team had made after losing to the Lions in the opening match of the tri-series at Derby last week.

"A lot of these tours aren't necessarily about winning, but I think the quality of cricket we've played throughout this tournament - except for the first game where we didn't bat particularly well - has been really good," Dravid told ESPNcricinfo. "A lot of the boys have had their first-time exposure to these conditions; we tried to rotate the squad as much as we could and give everyone decent opportunities.

"It's been quite satisfying, some good performances. A tough game today as well, we had to fight back with the ball and the bat - so good to see them fight, good to see them compete in these conditions. Definitely some positives, as well as seeing some of the boys get into the national side as well, irrespective of the result.

"Especially with the World Cup in a year's time, it's nice to have bench strength, for the selectors to know there are good young players if the situation does arise. It's nice to replicate this experience leading into the World Cup, to give these boys some exposure in these conditions."

Chahar, who claimed career-best List A figures of 5 for 27 against West Indies A following an impressive IPL, and Krunal have already been rewarded with maiden calls to the full India squad, for the T20I series against England starting on Tuesday. Dravid was particularly pleased with the performances of the team's pace attack during the tri-series, which he suggested had matched that of the Lions, notably in the final and in their 102-run win in Leicester.

"There's a good bench strength being developed and I think it gives people a lot of confidence that there are players, if the situation arises, who are in good touch and playing well," Dravid said. "Over the last couple of years, we've done really quite well in white-ball cricket at this level, built up quite a few players - so that's a good thing for Indian cricket.

"All the quicks were really good, we rotated the four of them and all of them had their moments and did well in the series. I think we've got a really strong bowling attack at the moment, with the India side, a lot of variation and depth, and it's nice to see we've got another batch there in case of injuries. Especially with the fast-bowling department, you need back-ups and people who can come in - we've got Deepak and Shardul [in India's last series before this tour] joining the national team due to injuries. It's good to see the fast bowlers coming through and almost out-bowl some of the English seamers in these conditions, which is a really good sign for us."

 

 

[express bowling]

Prasidh Krishna did not get enough chances ...  while Shardul Thakur, who has played quite a few ODIs for India, played most games among the pacers.

 

If player development is the objective then this choice looks strange.

[Ankit_sharma03]

5 minutes ago, express bowling said:

Prasidh Krishna did not get enough chances ...  while Shardul Thakur, who has played quite a few ODIs for India, played most games among the pacers.

 

If player development is the objective then this choice looks strange.

may be they are looking at shardul,axar as backups for world cup squads so in that case they wanna give him n axar game time since both cnt find a place in Indian side. That is the only sense i can make with both selections. 

[express bowling]

1 minute ago, Ankit_sharma03 said:

may be they are looking at shardul,axar as backups for world cup squads so in that case they wanna give him n axar game time since both cnt find a place in Indian side. That is the only sense i can make with both selections. 

 

I was open to seeing how Shardul does as a bowler in international cricket and the IPL, before forming a definitive opinion about him.  (  As he did well in important domestic matches and picked up some big wickets )

 

But, he does not look international class to me after watching him bowl a lot.  Lacks accuracy, extra pace, natural bounce and height and does not have any special ability to move the ball.

 

 

[Ankit_sharma03]

10 minutes ago, express bowling said:

 

I was open to seeing how Shardul does as a bowler in international cricket and the IPL, before forming a definitive opinion about him.  (  As he did well in important domestic matches and picked up some big wickets )

 

But, he does not look international class to me after watching him bowl a lot.  Lacks accuracy, extra pace, natural bounce and height and does not have any special ability to move the ball.

 

 

he aint bad like dhawal , unadkat but yea he lacks that quality to be a bowler of a top side. 

But urs n mine opinion doesnt matter its selectors n team mngmt he looks like a backup 

[jusarrived]

3 hours ago, express bowling said:

Prasidh Krishna did not get enough chances ...  while Shardul Thakur, who has played quite a few ODIs for India, played most games among the pacers.

 

If player development is the objective then this choice looks strange.

He got a few games and was expensive while Thakur had a decent run . They picked the best team for final imo otherwise the players where rotated well . 

[Rightarmfast]

3 hours ago, express bowling said:

 

I was open to seeing how Shardul does as a bowler in international cricket and the IPL, before forming a definitive opinion about him.  (  As he did well in important domestic matches and picked up some big wickets )

 

But, he does not look international class to me after watching him bowl a lot.  Lacks accuracy, extra pace, natural bounce and height and does not have any special ability to move the ball.

 

 

Haven't followed this series and haven't watched Thakur recently apart from IPL. He looks an excellent choice to me to play in a ranji game, but not to represent India. There are more than 5-6 bowlers who are younger and better than him. He isn't the youngest around either. 

Axar and Thakur seem weird choice absolutely. Unless there's some wheeling dealing going on behind the scene we don't know about. 

[raki05]

3 hours ago, Ankit_sharma03 said:

he aint bad like dhawal , unadkat but yea he lacks that quality to be a bowler of a top side. 

But urs n mine opinion doesnt matter its selectors n team mngmt he looks like a backup 

What does Axar patel provide when we already have 2 spinners in the team. He is poor man jadeja, atleast jadeja was best fielder but whats the worth of having this malnourished allrounder in the team.

[express bowling]

2 hours ago, jusarrived said:

He got a few games and was expensive while Thakur had a decent run . They picked the best team for final imo otherwise the players where rotated well . 

 

Prasidh got 2 games out of 5 ...  his ERs were  3.75 and 5.83.  Would not call that expensive.

 

Shardul is playing his 4th A-team series and has played a few games for Team India  ...   while Prasidh is playing his first A-team series.   But Shardul ended up playing 4 of the 5 games.

 

I think Prasidh needs more games under his belt than Shardul, to develop as a cricketer. As Dravid rightly said, these A-team games are not necessarily about winning.

[wanted_desi]

I would rather follow India A at this time around. Too bad matches don't get shown.