Sanjay Manjrekar reveals Rahul Dravid's biggest challenge as Team India coach

Former Indian batter turned veteran commentator Sanjay Manjrekar believes that managing expectations would not be a huge challenge for Team India head coach Rahul Dravid in the upcoming T20I series against South Africa, which is all set to begin on June 9. However, Team India will play a five-match T20I series against South Africa, with the first game to be played in Delhi on June 9.

The selectors have named an 18-member squad with KL Rahul as captain earlier in the absence of their regular captain Rohit Sharma. However, Rahul and Kuldeep Yadav have been ruled out of the series due to injuries, which made Rishabh Pant the new captain of the side.

During an interaction on News 18, Sanjay Manjrekar was asked if Rahul Dravid's biggest challenge will be managing expectations in the upcoming series. He 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."

Meanwhile, the cricketer-turned-analyst has added that the Team India head coach will do his best on things he can control. However, Rahul Dravid was appointed the Indian team's head coach after his successful stint with the under-19 and India-A sides. He was also successful in bringing more professionalism to the National Cricket Academy (NCA) when he was in charge of this.

He stated, "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."

However, Sanjay Manjrekar also shared his views on if Dravid's success will be defined by how India does in ICC tournaments. 

"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 further added.

However, the veteran said that Dravid will pick the right playing XI, an area that has proved to be Team India's weakness in the last few ICC tournaments. His comments came as Dravid has already stated in the press conference that he will be looking for more consistency in the team selections. He also added that he will not be making drastic changes before the T20 World Cup and will instead try giving proper time to players who have already been chosen.

Manjrekar concluded: "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."