A Tours Are Good Barometer For The Players And The Selectors To Judge Themselves

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India A and Under-19 teams' coach legendary Rahul Dravid feels that A team tour before the national team tours is good for the players and the selectors to see whether they can perform or not.

Dravid was speaking to BCCI.tv on Sunday, July 22.



He said that Boards should organise A team tours along with national team tours. He believes that organising such tours could be beneficial for both the team and the players.

India A team is in England since mid-June. They played a tri-series involving West Indies and England Lions before playing 3 unofficial 4-day matches, two against Windies A and an against England Lions. Against England Lions, India's two regular Test batsmen were also the part of the A-side.

"It is a great idea to have shadow tours. It may not be always possible, but whenever it is possible, it is highly beneficial. A lot of players have joined the national side from this team. It also gave an opportunity to Ajinkya Rahane and M Vijay to come down and spend time with us and play a practice game that was competitive and tough.



"Having the India A team tour before the national side opens up many possibilities in terms of preparations for both the sides. It also serves as motivation for many players, for they know when they do well on A tours, they will be picked in the national team," Dravid said.

"We are now organizing more A tours and it gives them an opportunity and also the selectors an opportunity to look at them and rotate the squad. For me, the A tours are a step up from domestic cricket. It is really a good barometer for them and the selectors to see whether they can perform or not.

"If they don't do well it is still a good opportunity to learn and go back to domestic cricket and work on the things they need to. It is a very good buffer to have in between, as you don't get exposed at the Test level. It gives a very good test of where these boys are and an understanding of the skills that need to be worked on both in bowling and batting," he added.



Rahul Dravid talked about the wicketkeeper-batsman Rishabh Pant who recently received his maiden Test call-up for the first 3-matches against England. He was the part of India A side and played some really good hands in tri-series and the 4-days match. He played against his natural attacking style which was highly demanding in tough England's conditions.

"Rishabh was quite excellent on the tour. He is obviously a very talented player. He showed in three or four innings that he was willing to bat differently. We all know the way he bats. Even in the 2017-18 Ranji Trophy season when he got over to 900 runs his S/R was 100 plus and we have seen him bat similarly in the IPL as well. On this trip, we challenged him a lot to bat according to the situation. He got a critical 64 (not out) in the one-day final when he was the last recognized batsman and also against West Indies A when he put on a 100-run partnership with Jayant Yadav.

"He showed that he could bat differently. He has the temperament and skills to bat differently. He is always going to be an attacking player but reading of the situation when you are playing red ball cricket is required. We are glad he has been picked in the national team and I hope he takes this maturity into the national team and hopefully builds from thereon," Dravid said.

India is scheduled to play 5-match Test series against England which will kick start from August 1.

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