Virat Kohli, MS Dhoni chart future plans for Indian cricket along with Anil Kumble and Rahul Dravid

The Indian Cricket thinktank

Indian test skipper Virat Kohli, ODI captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni along with head coach Anil Kumble and India A coach Rahul Dravid had a lengthy meeting today to decide the future course of action for Indian cricket in the coming season.

This high-profile meeting was also attended by chief national selector Sandeep Patil, GM (Cricket Operations) MV Sridhar, NCA batting coach WV Raman Narendra Hirwani, the spin bowling coach. Physio Andrew Leipus was also present during the meet.

Ever since Kumble has taken charge of the National team all efforts have been made to work in tandem with his state counterpart and India A coach Rahul Dravid. This meeting was an extension of this philosophy which is to emphasise on building a mutual understanding between the A teams and the senior teams. It was learnt that the emphasis will be more on building a cohesion between the ‘A’ teams and the senior teams.

Dhoni, who stepped aside from Test cricket in 2014, gave his opinion on the bench-strength of the team as he captained a relatively young side on the tour to Zimbabwe.

The focus will be on a seamless transition from first-class to ‘A’ level and then to the senior teams.

Also, there was a common consensus on building a core of fast bowlers such that the workload can be shared among the bowlers. India go into a hectic home season where they will play 13 Test Matches, and hence emphasis was on keeping all the bowlers fresh and managing their workloads.

This is were Andrew Leipus stepped in as he will be constantly monitoring the fast bowlers all throughout the season.

Discussions were also centred around the quality of spinners in India as currently there are no young spinners coming through who can challenge establish names like Ravichandran Ashwin, Ravi Jadeja and Amit Mishra.

Rahul Dravid will know so much more about Jayant Yadav, Axar Patel, Yuzvendra Chahal and Shahbaz Nadeem as they are part of the India A team and their progress will be under his watchful eyes. His information will be important going forward.

India A team will be travelling to Australia under the captaincy of Naman Ojha and thus the performance of the players will be of keen interest for Kohli and Kumble. Many players are on the fringe of National selection.

Narendra Hirwani has been entrusted with the responsibility of clearing the actions of young spinners who come for the NCA camps before they work under Dravid who is also the India Under-19 coach.

This meeting was held after the Indian team had a match simulation session where all the members wore customary whites in order to replicate the match-like situation.