‘I have a good relation with Rahul Dravid’ – Shikhar Dhawan ahead of India’s Sri Lanka sojourn

Shikhar Dhawan, the Indian skipper for the Sri Lanka tour, sounded confident about working with Rahul Dravid, who is the head coach for the Lanka series. The white-ball series gets underway on July 18 and all the matches will take place at the R Premadasa Stadium in Colombo.

Dhawan is set to lead the Men in Blue for the first time in the absence of regular skipper Virat Kohli. The left-handed batter went down memory lane and talked about his interactions with Dravid and his experience of playing under his tutelage.

The southpaw said that he has known Dravid since he started playing domestic cricket. The 35-year-old Dhawan put forth his opinions while speaking exclusively on Star Sports’ show ‘Follow the Blues’.

It will be great fun: Shikhar Dhawan

“It is a big achievement for me that I have become the captain of the Indian side. We have got a lovely bunch of boys, great support staff, and we have worked earlier as well. When I was the captain of India A, Rahul Dravid was the coach, and I have been to NCA many times, so there is a good bond,” Dhawan said.

“I have a good relation with Rahul Bhai. When I started playing Ranji Trophy, I played against him, and I have known him since then. When I went to play India A match, I was the Captain, and he was the coach, so there was interaction.

“When he became the Director of NCA, we used to go there for around 20 days, so we had a lot of interaction. And now that we have the chance to play six matches together, so it will be great fun,” he added.

In the tour of Sri Lanka, India have picked six uncapped players, including Devdutt Padikkal, Ruturaj Gaikwad, Chetan Sakariya, and others. Ahead of the games, Dhawan sounded optimistic about leading the youngsters on the tour.

He also focussed on the aspect of learning from each other during the series. The ODI series begins on July 18 with the T20I series to get underway on July 25. In the meantime, another Indian team is in England for the five-match Test series.