Rahul Dravid to coach Indian team on Lanka tour

New Delhi: Former India skipper and current National Cricket Academy (NCA) head Rahul Dravid will coach the Indian limited-overs team that will play a six-game series against Sri Lanka in July. This will be his second stint with the Indian team after working with the boys as batting consultant during the England tour in 2014.

Speaking to ANI, a BCCI official in the know of developments confirmed that the NCA head would be leading the team as the trio of Ravi Shastri, Bharat Arun and Vikram Rathour will be in England with the Test team.

“The Team India coaching staff will be in the UK and it is best that the young team is guided by Dravid as he has already worked with almost all of the India ‘A’ boys. The comfort the youngsters share with him will be an added advantage,” the official said.

Before taking over as the head of NCA in 2019, Dravid had worked closely with the current crop of youngsters in the Indian team at the U-19 level as well as in the India ‘A’ team. In fact, he is seen to have played an integral role in building a solid bench strength for the national team over the last couple of years — having taken charge of the U-19 and ‘A’ team in 2015.

The Indian team for the Sri Lanka series is expected to be selected at the end of the month and the boys will have to undergo quarantine in the Island Nation before playing the three ODI and three T20I games. The three ODIs will be played on July 13, 16, 19 and the T20Is are expected to be played from July 22-27.

While the young Indian players look to fight it out with Sri Lanka in the limited-overs series, the Virat Kohli-led side will be in England waiting for the start of the five-match Test series against the English team from August 4. This after battling it out with New Zealand in the final of the World Test Championship in Southampton from June 18 to 22.