Former Indian batter turned veteran commentator Sanjay Manjrekar said that managing expectations would not be a problem for Team India head coach Rahul Dravid in the upcoming T20I series against South Africa. This will begin on June 9 in Delhi. However, Rishabh Pant will lead the team as KL Rahul, who was named captain earlier has been ruled out of the series due to injuries

During an interaction on News 18, Sanjay Manjrekar said: “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.”

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He has also added that Dravid will do his best on things which he can control. However, Rahul Dravid was appointed the Indian team’s head coach after having successful stints with the under-19 and India-A sides as well. He was also successful in bringing more professionalism to the National Cricket Academy (NCA) when he was there.

“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. 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,” he shared.

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“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,” Sanjay Manjrekar signed off.