'I am not going to do that' - Rahul Dravid when asked to name his two India spinners for the T20 World Cup 2021

Rahul Dravid, head coach for Team India’s tour to Sri Lanka, was asked to pick his two candidates for the role in the spin department for the upcoming ICC T20 World Cup 2021. The 48-year-old refused to name any of his picks for the time being. Although India lost the T20I series to Sri Lanka, Indian spinners were exceptional throughout the three games and also during the preceding ODI series.

Yuzvendra Chahal sizzled in the 50-over format by picking up five wickets and Rahul Chahar, Varun Chakravarthy were impressive in the shortest format. Considering the global event to be staged in Oman and the UAE, the spinners will play a huge role since the pitches might be dry and a bit sluggish.

This was India’s last international T20I series before the T20 World Cup, and hence Dravid gave all the spinners a chance during the six white-ball games. Even Krunal Pandya, Krishnappa Gowtham, and Kuldeep Yadav played their roles perfectly by keeping things tight. But when quizzed at a post-match press conference about his picks were for the global event, Dravid smartly replied.

“I am not going to do that. I am the coach of this team. I am not going to name people publicly. All I would want to say is that all of them performed really well. We are lucky to have that kind of depth and quality in our team. And, two or three, or how many ever the selectors pick, will be great and will be able to do the job. It is up to the selectors to decide who they want and what they are looking at.”

Rahul Dravid impressed by Wanindu Hasaranga

If Indian spinners were consistent in taking wickets, so were the Lankan spinners led by Wanindu Hasaranaga. The leg-spinner picked four wickets in the third T20I and gave away just nine runs.

“In the last couple of games, we were a batsman short, which was always challenging. But the great positive for me was the way the boys fought. In the second game, we ran them very close. A couple of balls here and there and we could have actually won that game. Today, we didn’t bat well. (Wanindu) Hasaranga has been exceptional throughout the series, both him and (Dushmantha) Chameera. We just lost too many wickets early on. 80 was never going to be enough,” Dravid concluded.