Dhoni and Kohli sit with Kumble, Dravid to chalk roadmap

India’s Test captain Virat Kohli along with his limited overs counterpart Mahendra Singh Dhoni today had a lengthy meeting with chief coach Anil Kumble and ‘A’ team coach Rahul Dravid to chalk out a roadmap for Indian cricket for the coming days.

The meeting was also attended by chief national selector Sandeep Patil, GM (Cricket Operations) MV Sridhar, NCA batting coach WV Raman and spin bowling coach Narendra Hirwani along with physio Andrew Leipus. It was learnt that the emphasis will be more on building a cohesion between the ‘A’ teams and the senior teams.

Limited overs captain Dhoni also has given his inpuuts about what his assessment is about the bench-strength of the team as he led a side comprising mostly A team players. The focus will be on seamless transition from first-class to ‘A’ level and then to the senior teams.

According to reliable sources, there were discussions on creating a pool of fast bowlers who could be rotated keeping in mind a long and arduous season ahead.

Leipus came into the picture as his role and input will be vital in injury management of the fast bowlers. There has been a dearth of quality spinners with no competition for Ravichandran Ashwin, Ravi Jadeja and Amit Mishra.

While Jayant Yadav, Axar Patel, Yuzvendra Chahal and Shahbaz Nadeem are there in the mix, a lot will depend on the feedback that A team coach Dravid gives.

With the ‘A’ team travelling to Australia in August, it will be an important tour for the team management and especially Test captain Kohli and coach Kumble to identify who can be likely replacements for first team players in case there is injury or loss of form.

For spin coach Hirwani, it will be his duty to ensure that the spinners who are coming for NCA camps have clean action before they are taklen under Dravid’s aegis at the U-19 national team level.

Raman, the NCA batting coach, will need to co-ordinate more with Dravid, who is also the national U-19 coach. The significant meeting took place after the Indian team had a match simulation session where all the members wore customary whites in match-like situation.