IND vs SA 2022: Handling young players is his greatest strength – Sanjay Manjrekar on Rahul Dravid

Former Indian batter Sanjay Manjrekar has backed head coach Rahul Dravid to get the best out of the young players in the five-match T20I series against South Africa. As the experienced players like Virat Kohli, Rohit Sharma, and Jasprit Bumrah have been rested for the series, the national selectors have picked a lot of youngsters, who performed well in the Tata IPL 2022.

Furthermore, India suffered a huge blow as KL Rahul and Kuldeep Yadav have been ruled due to injury and no replacements have been named. Rishabh Pant will now lead the team while Hardik Pandya has been picked as the vice-captain.

On the other hand, Rahul Dravid had earlier coached Under-19 and India A teams and he is known is guide the youngsters on the right track. Dravid had done a tremendous job with the junior teams and he will look to replicate the same success while coaching the senior team.

In fact, it is well known that players like Sanju Samson, Shreyas Iyer, Hardik Pandya, and Rishabh Pant are all products of Dravid’s factory of coaching, who have gained confidence after playing under the tutelage of former Indian captain.

Sanjay Manjrekar said while talking to News18, “I think he will be very good at that. He is one of the most intelligent cricketers that I have come across, Rahul has always been worldly-wise, a very intelligent person, so that aspect he will handle beautifully and that’s why he was so good at the junior level as well. Handling young players is his greatest strength.”

“Rahul will be doing his best with whatever he can control, which is mostly off the field, picking the right XI, maybe tactics during breaks and in all that you can expect him to be at his best.”

Meanwhile, India last won a major ICC trophy back in 2013 when MS Dhoni-led the team to glory in the Champions Trophy. Since then India hasn’t been able to go all the way in the marquee events. Manjrekar feels the coach has a marginal role to play in the team’s achievements and performances.

Manjrekar said, “I still maintain the coach has a marginal role to play in a team’s eventual achievements and performances. It’s still the captain who calls the shots but the one thing you expect Rahul to do really well is team selection, picking the right XI.”

Manjrekar feels India didn’t pick the ideal final XI in their last ICC events in the matches they were knocked out.

“My simplistic conclusion from what happened in the last four or five ICC events was the kind of playing XI that India picked, I thought they just overthought the whole process and somehow the playing XI didn’t quite make sense and that went on to hurt India on occasions.”

India will play South Africa on Thursday in Delhi.