Rahul Dravid’s aggressive words motivated us to win the title, says India’s U19 captain Abhishek Sharma

17-year-old Abhishek Sharma, who led the Indian team to victory in the recently concluded ACC under-19 Asia Cup reveals how coach Rahul Dravid’s tough words after the win over Afghanistan in the semi-finals motivated his boys to do well in the finals.

India set the Afghans a target of 295 in the semis and reduced them to 46-4 in the chase. It was then the Indians decide to relax in the field as they waited for the batsmen to make mistakes and give away the wickets. Instead, the Afghanistanis managed to bat out all the 50 overs and scored 217 runs for the loss of 7 wickets.

Talking to TOI, Abhishek, who had scored 154 runs and claimed eight wickets in five matches in the Asia Cup, said that Dravid was upset when the boys went to the dressing room after the match because the team didn’t play to their full potential and wanted them to go for the kill. His aggressive speech in the dressing room spurred the colts to go for the kill in the finals against Sri Lanka.

“We had scored 294 batting first. We thought we had the match in the bag after they were 46 for four and took it casually. We were just waiting for them to make mistakes and they played all the 50 overs.

“Even after we won, Dravid was a bit upset and he told us that we weren't playing to our potential and the standards we had set.He wanted us to go for the kill but we were waiting for things to happen. Dravid spoke aggressively in the meeting and stressed that we have to be ruthless,“ he said.

Abhishek's U-19 stint was not the first time he was associated with Dravid as the all-rounder from Amritsar had impressed the Indian legend in the Delhi Daredevils preparatory camp ahead of last season. Abhishek also conceded that Dravid was very instrumental in him becoming a matured cricketer as the former Indian skipper sent him to NCA instead of practising with the Delhi Daredevils team.

“Dravid told me to go to the NCA camp and highlighted the importance of going there in order to get the basics strong. He said I wouldn't be having much practice with the Daredevils team during the tournament as they would be travelling,“ concluded Abhishek.