Dravid: Agarkar and his selectors pushed India to pick new players

[rollingstoned]

Dravid: Agarkar and his selectors pushed India to pick new players

India coach praises the selectors' input and their captain was pleased with Kuldeep and Jaiswal's growth

ESPNCRICINFO STAFF09-Mar-2024 • 17 hrs ago

Three in this picture - Devdutt Padikkal, Dhruv Jurel and Sarfaraz Khan - made their debuts for India in this series  BCCI

 

After winning a series in which injuries, player unavailability, workload management and general transition forced India to give out five debuts - their joint-equal highest after their very first series - India's coach has reserved special praise for the selectors, who, Rahul Dravid said, "pushed and challenged" the team management to play new options.

 

 

At various points in the series, India missed Mohammed Shami, Virat Kohli, KL Rahul, Rishabh Pant, Jasprit Bumrah, Ravindra Jadeja and Mohammed Siraj, but were 4-1 victors despite losing the first Test. The commentators of the broadcast were congratulating Dravid and the support staff when he made a special mention for the selectors.

 

"I'd just like to give a big shoutout to Ajit [Agarkar, chairman of selectors] and his team as well," Dravid said. "A lot of the youngsters that come in, honestly, as a coach and as a captain, we don't actually get to see them because we don't see as much domestic cricket as Ajit and his team of selectors do. And they've pushed us and they've challenged us to pick some of these young players and they've picked the right ones and they've come out here and performed. So sometimes it's not easy being a selector because you always get the criticism but a big credit and a big pat on the back to Ajit and his team as well."

 

One of the selections that worked out splendidly was wicketkeeper Dhruv Jurel, who was picked with an experience of just 15 first-class matches. The wicketkeeper had become a tricky spot for India in Pant's absence especially with Ishan Kishan practically making himself unavailable for international cricket. However, just in his second Test Jurel prevented India from falling behind by a huge margin in Ranchi, a performance that bagged him the Player-of-the-Match award.

 

Considering the high number of newcomers in the side, India needed some of the relative youngsters to put in veteran performances. Yashasvi Jaiswal, experience of four Tests coming into the series, and Kuldeep Yadav, eight caps coming into the series, stood up throughout. Jaiswal bagged the Player-of-the-Series award, becoming only the second India batter to score 700 or more in a series, and Kuldeep became the fastest Indian bowler and the second-fastest spinner overall to 50 Test wickets.

 

Rohit was full of praise for them. "It was a long conversation [with Kuldeep, when he was down and out]," Rohit said. "It's not maybe once or twice. It was over a period of time that we had conversations with him. Certainly, has got a lot of potential. We know that he can be a match-winner on his day. We saw in the first innings where chips were down a little bit. He came and bowled pretty well."He's got something about him, which we all need to be happy about. After his injury - he had a knee injury a couple of years back - he has worked hard at NCA, worked with his coaches, and is putting a lot of body into the ball, which is good to see. The most pleasing was his batting through the series."

 

Rohit had been wary of praising Jaiswal too much lest he jinx him, but once the series was over he let himself celebrate his opening partner. "I can talk about him now," Rohit said. "Guy's got a long way to go. Started off really well. This is amazing to be in this position for him personally. We saw through the series he wants to take on the bowlers and that is something that we want to encourage. When the guy's got talent like that, who can play the shots like that, puts bowlers under pressure from the word go, that's something that we want to encourage and something we want to take forward.

 

"Obviously there will be a lot of challenges for him moving forward, but I'm pretty sure he is a tough guy. He has come a long way to where he is right now. So obviously he will understand what he needs to do individually and then what the team expects from him as well."

 

Is Dravid being gracious or does sir aggy deserve all the credit?

Edited March 10 by rollingstoned

[BlueBlood]

Dravid as usual throwing a bone to selectors so his job remains safe.

 

Great diplomat unlike Kumble or Kapil who were too truthful and honest at times.

 

Everyone knows without injuries KL would have replaced Bharat. It's funny they act like they made a brave decision to drop Kohli, Iyer, KL etc. To make way for youngsters.

 

Seniority culture is the root of all issues.

 

I knew it that when they scheduled this home tour, India would bully England and then make everyone forget the WC final loss just before IPL. MISSION ACCOMPLISHED.

[tweaker]

Ajit Agarkar should get credit as Dravid said he didn't know about most of them.

Dravid would have selected Bharat ,Patidar throughout the series.

 

Dravid was always looking for return of Rahul.after every test.

 

Akashdeep was dropped after impressive debut to accomodate out of form Siraj

[Serpico]

Jurel is a great selection, very young too. I don't think anyone on icf knew about him before they picked him into the squad

[jf1gp_1]

All steps taken in this series were forced. Kohli showed middle finger and BCCI couldn't do a thing. Iyer and Ishan refused to play. Rahul couldn't move so he couldn't be selected. Shami was injured, Siraj lacklustre, Umesh and Ishan pretty much done hence they moved to Mukesh and co. The only step which was sort of commendable was that they didn't go back to Pujara.

 

Rohit will captain India in T20 WC which he shouldn't have done. We already know best cause we reach semis. So I am not sure why is Agarkar getting credit. 

[Kron]

4 hours ago, tweaker said:

Ajit Agarkar should get credit as Dravid said he didn't know about most of them.

Dravid would have selected Bharat ,Patidar throughout the series.

 

Dravid was always looking for return of Rahul.after every test.

 

Akashdeep was dropped after impressive debut to accomodate out of form Siraj

All forced selections. Fluke

 

Most of icf knew all these talented players. Bcci is a joke

[Lord]

3 minutes ago, Kron said:

All forced selections. Fluke

 

Most of icf knew all these talented players. Bcci is a joke

 

Jurel,Sarfaraz are not forced selections. They could have easily selected some senior domestic keeper and brought back Pujara for eggsperience

[Kron]

20 minutes ago, Lord said:

 

Jurel,Sarfaraz are not forced selections. They could have easily selected some senior domestic keeper and brought back Pujara for eggsperience

That just means the bar Is that low. 

 

Btw y.thakur bowling brilliant 135 to 142 pace & bounce

[putrevus]

Dravid is somehow getting a pass for his coaching mistakes, he is being hailed as some great coach. He almost ruined this series also by selecting Bharat.

[Lord]

1 hour ago, Kron said:

That just means the bar Is that low. 

 

Btw y.thakur bowling brilliant 135 to 142 pace & bounce

 

That is what previous selectors did. So he deserves credit for doing right thing.

[Laaloo]

The weasel Dravid sounds a bit disappointed.

[tweaker]

5 hours ago, jf1gp_1 said:

All steps taken in this series were forced. Kohli showed middle finger and BCCI couldn't do a thing. Iyer and Ishan refused to play. Rahul couldn't move so he couldn't be selected. Shami was injured, Siraj lacklustre, Umesh and Ishan pretty much done hence they moved to Mukesh and co. The only step which was sort of commendable was that they didn't go back to Pujara.

 

Rohit will captain India in T20 WC which he shouldn't have done. We already know best cause we reach semis. So I am not sure why is Agarkar getting credit. 

As per Dravid 's comment he would have gone with Pujara,Rahane,Axar,Mukesh and Bharat.

He was very reluctant for backing youngsters. 

Sarfaraz should have played by now.

He was not ready to drop Iyer and Bharat.

Inspite of failure Patidar was set to play in 5 th test.

If we see Akashdeep and Mukesh bowling ,most will.select Akashdeep, but Dravid kept selecting Mukesh

[vvvslaxman]

Jurel's selection was a good one. Could be accidental given how much KSB sucked. Sarfraz's selection is a delayed one. Sarfraz should have been picked before SKY. Having said that Dravid didn't exactly utilize it very well right from the get go. . Patidar was chosen ahead of Sarfraz. Also not selecting Jaiswal for the world cup was another blunder.  Backing Mukesh across all 3 formats another puzzle that we will never understand.  Then Unadkat experiment. From team selection perspective TM ignored the regression of Axar as a bowler. THey just focused on his batting which gave Indian team a cushion. Hence Kuldeep lost out in the first Test. 

[The Realist]

Dravid is holding the team back with his conservatism in tactics and selection.

 

A new coach with progressive ideas would do wonders with some of the younger contingent coming through and really build a solid core for the next few years.

[Vijy]

3 hours ago, The Realist said:

Dravid is holding the team back with his conservatism in tactics and selection.

 

A new coach with progressive ideas would do wonders with some of the younger contingent coming through and really build a solid core for the next few years.

he won't be removed. will stay for years and years, along with fatman

[Serpico]

2 hours ago, Vijy said:

he won't be removed. will stay for years and years, along with fatman

Problem is laxman is next in line after Dravid. This whole 90s school is in their bcci administration era and won't leave for another 5-10 years atleast

 

After that the thala era will start 

[singhvivek141]

Its sad to see that our ex cricketers are so incompetent in identifying who has potential and who doesnt.

 

Dravid & co must have seen Jurel batting in nets alongside Bharath. Yet they played him only from 3rd test onwards. What was the reason behind this delay, were they expecting Bharath to score a 100 inns just to prove they're correct ? 

 

Same with Mukesh vs Akashdeep, its no rocket science to see who is better. But our coach & captain see Mukesh as an all format bowler over Akashdeep. 

 

All that year of international cricketing experience is useless if you can't identify & back even the right player in their setup.

 

Our captain, coach aren't proactive and I don't see our selectors interested either. Salil Ankola was more interested in roaming with his wife rather than focusing on the SMAT tournament to identify new talents. I don't even know who the other selectors are, such is the state of affairs.

Everyone is just waiting for IPL to happen and it will be then used as a platform to select, drop players for all 3 formats. 

[kosingh]

The real test will be keeping the likes of KL Rahul out of the team. It's easy to play youngsters when some seniors don't want to play. But what happens when undeserving seniors like KL do want to play? Are you willing to play deserving youngsters ahead of them?

 

 

[Number]

The only negative of Agarkar's  reign is persisting with some low ceiling pace bowlers which Chetan Sharma selected.

Other than that he had been quite good.

Edited March 11 by Number

[nevada]

This same Draw-weed dropped Kuldeep immediately after a Man of the Match Performance for Undercutter, picked Mukesh for a test match in India, and has been a strong backer of the insipid Rahul assuming keeping duties even in test cricket. How can this guy not know about new and upcoming talent? In praising the selectors, he has actually admitted his own blindness towards identifying and picking match-winners. He has a fetish for mediocre or over the hill players and seems to troll the viewing public with inexplicable selections.