Rahul Dravid, former India head coach, has expressed his gratitude for several players from his U19 batches who went on to represent the Indian cricket team. He mentioned a number of names, including as Sanju Samson and wicketkeeper-batters Rishabh Pant. Both of these cricket players had exceptional talent at a very young age, the 52-year-old emphasized. Notably, the pair, who were coached by him, recently won the 2024 T20 World Cup trophy with the Men in Blue.
Dravid also singled out India’s new Test captain Shubman Gill and the current top-ranked T20I batter Abhishek Sharma as two of the bright players from his U19 batches. The head coach of the Rajasthan Royals (RR) also selected Anshul Kamboj, a bowler for the Chennai Super Kings (CSK) who just made his Test debut in England during the 2025 Anderson-Tendulkar Trophy, and Priyansh Arya, an opener for the Punjab Kings (PBKS).
In an interview with Ravichandran Ashwin on his Kutty Stories YouTube channel, Dravid stated:
“When you see Rishabh for the first time, you could feel that this guy is something different. If I look back at the 2016 batch… Even someone like Khaleel Ahmed – he’s sort of still finding his way, not being able to crack that way. As you move on, Shubman Gill was pretty much in the next batch. There was Prithvi Shaw.
Rahul Dravid
“When I first saw Sanju Samson, I worked with him, but when I first saw Sanju as an 18-year-old, he looked like a million bucks. So many names are not mentioned, and I would be unfair [to them]. It’s not one kid that makes you, ‘wow,’ [but] it’s just the talent coming through the Indian system that makes you go wow.”
Rahul Dravid
The former India captain continued:
“What was really exciting to me, and I see that now, is that there are so many people, and everyone remembers the guys who went on to play. The Rishabh Pant, Shubman Gill, and Abhishek Sharma, all of them. There are also a bunch of guys who are playing consistently well today, and they didn’t make those World Cup squads. They were there and thereabouts.
Rahul Dravid
“Like Priyansh Arya, who missed out on the squad, but he was part of the U-19 team that toured South Africa. Even Anshul Kamboj was in one of our teams, but never made it to that national setup. There are quite a few kids like that who are now playing quite well and having really good careers.”
Rahul Dravid
Priyansh Arya enjoyed a breakout season with IPL 2025 runners-up Punjab Kings (PBKS). In his debut season, the 23-year-old amassed 475 runs at a strike rate of 179.24 in 17 games, including two fifties and a ton. Kamboj, meanwhile, took eight wickets for the Super Kings team at an economy rate of eight in a string of games.
Rahul Dravid reflects on 2018 U19 World Cup triumph with Team India
Rahul Dravid also expressed his enthusiasm for coaching and mentoring young players, stating that winning the 2016 U19 World Cup was not his top priority. In the same video, he stated:
“We didn’t have a lot of time to prepare that U-19 batch, and I wasn’t very obsessed about the result. What fascinated me was the kind of preparation we can give for the next batch of U-19 players. That became the exciting part. Saying that we’ve got another World Cup in 2 years. It wasn’t just about the World Cup. It was about giving exposure to not just the 15 guys who would be part of the World Cup squad.”
Rahul Dravid
“There was a slightly larger pool of kids, with almost 30 of them. Over the next two years, how can you give them more opportunities? Organize more tours and convince the board that there needs to be more U-19 tours and India A tours. At one point, there was a nice arrangement with Cricket Australia and Cricket South Africa. The three A teams always played in August. We organized it well. It was a really good thing. One year, we played in Australia, then in India, and then in South Africa. I toured with them for all three.”
Rahul Dravid
Rahul Dravid’s first ICC trophy as coach came in the 2018 U19 World Cup, where India, led by Prithvi Shaw, lifted the title. Earlier, in the 2016 edition under Ishan Kishan’s captaincy, India had reached the final but finished as runners-up to the West Indies.
At the senior level, Dravid led the Indian team under Rohit Sharma to 2024 T20WC. India also managed to appear under his managements at the World Cup 2023 and World Test Championship 2023 finals.
