Baptism of youth in India A pleases mentor Dravid

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The one-day series between India A and England Lions ended on Thursday, with the visitors pulling off a consolation win in the last game. The Indians wouldn’t mind this one bit, considering that under coach Rahul Dravid the focus of the A team has always been on the players rather than results.

Even in these five matches, 23 players were given opportunities. The squad was rotated in every game. Experienced players like KL Rahul and Ajinkya Rahane were given a chance to sharpen their skills and rediscover form, while newcomers like Avesh Khan and Ruturaj Gaikwad also got some playing time.
“The positives from this series are that we were able to give opportunities to senior boys including the likes of Ajinkya Rahane, Hanuma Vihari and KL Rahul and young boys who we are trying to bring into the India A system. There have been a lot of good performances and a lot that the selectors can look at and feel happy about,” Dravid said.

The former batsman kept rotating the squad during the series and the players kept delivering the goods until the last match, where they were bowled out for 121. “We brought in a lot of younger boys, especially for the final matches. They had not been a part of our set-up but we want to slowly bring them in. The India A matches are not about results all the time,” he said. 

The series started when the knockout phase of the Ranji Trophy was underway and Dravid was busy trying to find the right balance in terms of selecting players. Those with Ranji commitments were not called up.
“We did not pick anyone playing in Ranji Trophy and gave that importance to the quarterfinals, semifinals and final of the competition. But we have to give these players a good level and a standard higher than domestic cricket. If we don’t challenge them at a slightly higher level than first-class cricket, then how are we going to develop them to play international cricket? We try to make sure that there is no clash between domestic cricket and the A tours but at some point it will happen,” he said.

India A dominated the Lions in the series, but the last match had a nail-biting finish. Chasing a low total, Lions lost wickets regularly but Ben Duckett shepherded the lower order and scored an unbeaten 70 to steer the visitors to a one-wicket win. The teams will face each other in the first unofficial Test from February 7 at the Krishnagiri Stadium in Wayanad.

Flower praise for bowlers

England Lions coach Andy Flower said the biggest strength of the India A team was bowling. “The quality of India’s seam bowling stood out for me. The national team is away and we saw the next lot of Indian seamers coming through. There were some impressive performances,”
he said.

Flower also said the series was closer than the 4-1 scoreline suggests. “There were some tight matches. We could have won a few. But I am satisfied with our performance. It was nice to see Ben Duckett embrace the responsibility as the main batsman to finish off the chase in this match.”