Mandeep Singh credits Rahul Dravid for his new found confidence

Punjab batsman Mandeep Singh has had his confidence boosted after an enlightening India A tour to Australia he spoke at length about his batting with Indian batting legend Rahul Dravid.

In his last two matches of the tour, he scored a fine 56 and a brilliant 95 against Australia A at Mackay. The latter also helped his side win the final.

"It was amazing that a technically solid player like him (Rahul Dravid) never told me to worry about my technique. For four to five days he was by my side in the nets.”

“If a player like him tells me that your technique is good and you just have to go about your training, as usual, it works wonders for your confidence. That is what happened with me," Mandeep was quoted by Mid Day.

The 24-year-old was left frustrated as he had to sit on the bench for the whole series against New Zealand recently which India won 3-2. Despite some good form, he could not get a game in.

He made his debut as an opener earlier this year in June when a second string Indian side faced Zimbabwe. There too he impressed with the bat scoring an unbeaten 52 in one of the games.

In the A tour to Australia, Mandeep did not start off that well, but after four failures in a row, he rallied back with the two great knocks.

His morale was quite low after the first few games but then as Mandeep says it was Dravid who helped him get over his lean patch.

"Rahul sir said told me that me that footwork in Australia is very important because the ball swings and the bounce are on the higher side.

"He said you would get out if you are not sure about playing back or forward. He also attributes his improvement as a cricketer to improved fitness, which has become an important aspect of one's all round game than ever before," he added.

Mandeep has so far played just 3 T20s for the Indian team where he has scored 87 runs at an average of 43.50.

In his First Class career, Mandeep has played 59 matches and amassed 3806 runs. His average too is at a healthy 43.74. He also has 10 hundreds and 17 fifties in First Class cricket.