India win U19 World Cup 2018: 4 factors that showed Rahul Dravid's influence on India's U-19 team 

ICC U19 Cricket World Cup - India v Papua New Guinea
ICC U19 Cricket World Cup - Rahul Dravid has been brilliant as the India U-19 coach

India's U-19 team created history today after winning their 4th U-19 World Cup. It has been a remarkable journey for the team, which was in supreme form the entire World Cup registering victories in every game it played.

The margins of these victories clearly suggest how commanding these young Indian lads were. Team's exemplary performance has won adulation from the Indian cricket fans and the cricket fraternity as well.

Along with these cricketers, one individual who also has been applauded is India's U-19 mentor and head coach Rahul Dravid. A lot of credit has to go to the wall of Indian cricket for nurturing these talented but naive individuals and helping them grow not only as cricketers but also as humans.

Dravid's love for the game and passion for serving the country are unmatched. The BCCI's decision to make him the mentor/coach of the India U-19 has already borne fruit and will continue to do so in future as well when some of these young cricketers play for the senior team. The values inculcated by Dravid would always stay with all the members of the squad throughout their respective careers.

During the entire tournament, every aspect of India's game showed Rahul Dravid's influence. Here's how.

#1 Focus

Australia v India - Third Test: Day 1

Rahul Dravid is the quintessence of focus. During his career, he focused only on the game. Fan and media pressure, fame and the money never distracted Dravid from his task of winning games for India. It seems like Dravid has passed on this extraordinary skill of his to all the U-19 team members of India.

The IPL auction 2018 took place on the 27th and 28th of January, just three days prior to the all-important semi-final clash with the arch-rivals Pakistan. Like the previous auctions, this auction too proved to be a fortune-changer for many.

Amongst these were the four members of the current U-19 Indian team who became overnight millionaires. Fiery fast bowlers Kamlesh Nagarkoti and Shivam Mavi, India U-19 Captain Prithvi Shaw and vice-captain Shubhman Gill were the ones who bagged IPL contracts.

To keep these excited young individuals focused on the World Cup semi-final clash was a tough task but Dravid did it perfectly with all four players mentioned above performing exceedingly well.

#2 Discipline

ICC U19 Cricket World Cup - India v Papua New Guinea

Discipline in cricket can have two meanings. The first one is discipline in the way you play the game, i.e. not gifting your wicket to the opposition while batting and bowling as per the field. The second meaning of discipline in cricket is the player's on-field behavior, or the way he interacts with his fellow teammates, opposition players, and the match officials. Rahul Dravid had both the aspects of discipline in cricket well covered. Dravid never threw his wicket away. Also, he never misbehaved with any individual in the field.

Taking a leaf out of Dravid's international career, the Indian team batsmen had also put a heavy price on their wickets throughout the tournament. Also, the bowlers bowled to the plan and did not leak easy runs. Along with this, the team's behavior on-field was ideal as the players rightly channelized their aggression into batting, bowling, and fielding.

# 3 Being a selfless team man

ICC U19 Cricket World Cup - India v Papua New Guinea

To perform well in a tournament as big as the World Cup, the entire team has to rise up to the occasion and work synchronously to achieve the single big goal of winning the title. The international exposure that these young cricketers get through such tournament is immense and thus it becomes one platform for every player to showcase their respective skill sets to the international audience, different franchises, and the country's top selectors.

In this process of making a mark, often players from the same team try to outperform each other thus deviating from the ultimate goal.

But this Indian U-19 side under Rahul Dravid time and again proved to be a bunch of selfless individuals working towards a common goal during the entire tournament. A sense of respect and admiration for each other was clearly noticeable. The credit goes again to Rahul Dravid for creating great team players and not just good batsmen or good bowlers.

#4 Importance of partnerships

ICC U19 Cricket World Cup - India v Papua New Guinea

Cricket is a game of partnerships. Forming good partnerships while batting or bowling is extremely important to win any game. Stitching a solid partnership while batting can change the course of the game. It can bail the team out of tough situations. In bowling too, partnerships are important as the pressure needs to be applied from both the ends in order to pick up wickets.

Rahul Dravid, along with other greats like Sachin Tendulkar, VVS Laxman, and Sourav Ganguly, truly understood the significance of partnerships. Dravid was involved in the many of the biggest partnerships in cricket helping the team win.

The Prithvi Shaw and Manjot Kalra partnership at the top gave India a flying start in most of the games. Shubman Gill's carefully stitched partnerships with Harvik Desai, Riyan Parag, Abhishek Sharam and Anukul Roy were instrumental in team India's success. In the bowling department too fast bowlers Kamlesh Nagarkoti and Shivam Mavi formed great a partnership which wrecked the opposition batting. They were strongly backed up by Shiva Singh and Ishan Porel.

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Edited by Anuradha Santhanam