"Handling young players is his greatest strength" - Sanjay Manjrekar on Rahul Dravid's biggest challenge as Team India coach

Former Indian batter Sanjay Manjrekar believes managing expectations will not be a huge challenge for Rahul Dravid in the upcoming T20I series against South Africa, which starts on June 9.

Team India will face the Proteas in a five-match series, with the first game to be played in Delhi on June 9. The selectors named an 18-member squad with KL Rahul as skipper. However, Rahul and Kuldeep Yadav have been ruled out of the series due to injuries, with Rishabh Pant being appointed the new captain.

During an interaction on News 18, Sanjay Manjrekar was asked if Dravid's biggest challenge during the series will be managing expectations. He responded:

"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."

The cricketer-turned-analyst added that the Indian head coach will only be looking to control the controllables. Manjrekar elaborated:

"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."

Dravid was appointed the Indian team's head coach after enjoying great success with the under-19 and India-A sides. He was also instrumental in bringing more professionalism to the National Cricket Academy (NCA) when he was at the helm.

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"The coach has a marginal role to play" - Sanjay Manjrekar on whether Rahul Dravid's success will be defined by how India does in ICC events

Rahul Dravid replaced Ravi Shastri as Team India's head coach

Manjrekar was also asked if Dravid's success will be defined by how India does in ICC tournaments. He replied:

"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."

The 56-year-old feels Dravid will be better at picking the right playing XI, an area that has proved to be Team India's Achilles heel in the last few ICC events. Manjrekar said:

"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."

Dravid has already mentioned in the press conference that he will be looking for more consistency in team selections. He pointed out that he will not be making drastic changes ahead of the T20 World Cup, and will instead be looking to give proper opportunities to players who have already been identified.

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