India's cricket culture is so strong that they can field three international teams at the same time: Kamran Akmal

The Indian cricket team, apart from its success across all formats of the game, is also known for the serious depth and talent pool. Notably, India will be up against England and Sri Lanka at the same time in two separate tours as one unit will be playing a five-match Test series in the United Kingdom, while another unit will take on Sri Lanka in an away tour of three ODIs and as many T20Is at the same time.

While even the thought of pulling this off might be tough for most of the international teams right now, such is the depth of the Indian team that the options available for the Sri Lanka tour do not look second-string by any means despite all of India first-choice players including Virat Kohli, Rohit Sharma, Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Shami, Ravindra Jadeja and the likes being in the UK.

Impressed by the same, speaking on his YouTube channel, Kamran Akmal applauded India and suggested that Indian cricket is so strong currently that they can easily field three different international sides, let alone two.

India is so strong that they can field three international teams: Kamran Akmal

“Full credit to India’s mindset. Two teams will be playing at a time soon, one in England and one in Sri Lanka. Their cricket culture is so strong that they can field three international teams at the same time. This is because they have made no compromises at the grassroot level.”

Giving the example of Rahul Dravid, who coached the India A and U-19 sides before taking over as head of the National Cricket Academy (NCA), Kamran Akmal added, “Rahul Dravid has been working with the BCCI for seven-eight years I think, and look where he has taken Indian cricket. Dravid has readied players for international cricket at the grassroot level. Then, in the Indian team, Ravi Shastri has guided them really well as head coach.

“As captain, first MS Dhoni and now Virat Kohli have carried the team brilliantly. In between, when Kohli was resting, Rohit Sharma took over. Look at the captaincy options they have. If Rohit is injured, then they have KL Rahul. They are not affected even if big players are unavailable,” he added.

“Even if India sends a C team to Sri Lanka they will win. The Lankans recently lost to Bangladesh,” he signed off.