Virat Kohli will only learn from his mistakes as captain , opined former India captain Rahul Dravid . Kohli have made a great start to his stint as Indian captain . Apart from winning an overseas series against Sri Lanka , he is also on the verge of sealing the series against the Proteas after 11 years . Last time India won a series against Proteas at home was back in 2004 under Ganguly’s captaincy . Rahul reaped high praises on Kohli’s aggressive brand of captaincy . According to Dravid ,“As long as you are winning no one should complain. Virat has produced some very good results in Test cricket. I think he’s got to learn. No one is born a perfect captain and even when you are an established captain you will make mistakes. So I think we are sometimes very quick to judge and start labeling who is aggressive and non-aggressive because it suits us. Suits the press really because then you can build a story around it. The fact is he’s got to be judged on the results he produces. So far so good. I think he is doing a great job.”
Dravid is also happy to see Pujara coming good or at least showing signs to come good in recent times . He feels the batsman from Saurashtra is the ideal No. 3 batsman and he should be persisted with unless he goes through a string of poor performances with the bat . “ I like Pujara. He has played some critical match-winning innings. So I really like him at 3. But that again depends on performances. You got to keep performing in any position. There is no position that’s written in stone that it’s your spot. There was a generation of cricketers who batted. There was myself, Sachin, Laxman and Ganguly who played for a long time because there were performances. You keep performing you can hold on to your spot. Pujara is doing well at 3. Kohli obviously is a really good 4. And Rahane bats well at 5. They keep performing hopefully they will play for a long time.”
Former India captain is quite exited with the concept of Pink ball being used in test cricket . Australia and New New Zealand will lock horns against each other in the first day night test cricket in Adelaide starting from tomorrow . Dravid , who had the privilege of playing with the pink ball in Abu Dhabi added , “I am excited about it. Im looking forward to how it goes. I have played it myself in Abu Dhabi for the England champion county versus the rest of England four years ago. I quite enjoyed it. I didn’t have an issue seeing the ball. We need to try things. We need to experiment. At one stage we keep talking how Test cricket is diminishing in value and we need to say look we are doing something that gets hopefully more people to the stadium. People still follow Test cricket. They still watch Test cricket. But not many people are coming to the ground and we need to find ways to bring them to the ground.”
Speaking on the recent technique of few Indian batsman against spin , Dravid highlighted the lack of technique ,“ There is no doubt that against Australia A and South Africa A we realized that we can play spin better. In some of the one-day games, especially the rotation of strike, taking singles, because a lot of the time they are practicing hitting sixes in T20 cricket so that ability to rotate the strike needs to be practiced. It needs to be enforced because its an important part of the game. Always you will be able to play big shots. I was pleased with the way we played against Bangladesh when we lost toss we were 116/4 and how the boys rotated the strike. Even in this team I am really reinforcing the value of a single and how important it is to rotate the strike. Not only does it keep the scoreboard ticking but also takes the pressure off you. You are not forced to play the big shot all the time. It’s a work in progress. ”
Speaking on the forthcoming final against Bangladesh colts in the Tri Nation Series , the India U’19 coach commented ,“ The approach is about for them to have some fun and enjoy it. And to keep learning. I think at this age in their career results is not that important as much as learning and growth is. My focus is to help them grow as cricketers and hopefully as people as well from this experience. Obviously they are preparing fro the World Cup but at the end of the day its more than that. Its about hoping that some of these boys go on to represent Indian in the future and how we can help them in those journeys and the challenges they will face, the real challenge they will face after they leave the U-19 level. For the last couple of years there has not been a lot of U-19 cricket. We are a bit rushed in our preparation. I this tournament its about giving people the opportunity and rotating the players. Its really creditable since 16 or 17 boys are playing U-19 cricket for the first time, compared to say Bangladesh who have been preparing for a really long time. Hopefully we will go to Sri Lanka to get some more matches and also organize another series just before the World Cup. And give them as many chances as possible to help them grow and also help us understand them and their combination because a lot of the players we are also seeing for the first time.”