"If you come on an A tour with me, you will not leave here without playing a game" - How Rahul Dravid nurtures young Indian cricketers
The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) on June 10 (Thursday) announced a 20-member squad that will fly to Sri Lanka next month for a limited-overs series.
It has been a rare instance, where one international team has fielded two different sides simultaneously. Both teams are equally capable of beating any team they come across.
This has not been an easy task and is the result of a proper, structured system that has been in place over the last five years under the watchful eyes of head coach Rahul Dravid. Ever since Dravid has taken charge of the U-19 side and India A, there has been a paradigm shift in India's bench strength.
Dravid believes in giving match time to players. Mohammed Siraj, who took 11 wickets against Australia A in September of 2018, was rested to accommodate a new player.
"I tell them up front, if you come on an A tour with me, you will not leave here without playing a game. I've had that personal experience myself as a kid; going on an A tour and not getting an opportunity to play is terrible. You've done well, you scored 700-800 runs, you go, and you don't get a chance to show what you're good at," said Dravid.
"Then you're back to square one from the selectors' point of view because, the next season, you have to score those 800 runs again. It is not easy to do that, so there is no guarantee you'll get a chance again. So you tell people upfront: this is the best 15 and we are playing them. At U-19, we make five-six changes between games if we can," Dravid added.
India A played 24 unofficial Tests from 2017 till the end of 2019
From the start of 2017 till the end of 2019, India A played 24 unofficial Tests. That is more than the actual number of Tests New Zealand or Bangladesh or Pakistan played in that time. No other A team has played more than 14 games within the same period.
Rahul Dravid has acknowledged the hard work the franchises are putting into the Indian Premier League. With so much first-class cricket being played, it becomes a tough job for selectors to attend every game. The franchises are providing India with extra selectors and unearthing raw talents like Jasprit Bumrah, T Natarajan and Varun Chakravarthy.