Rahul Dravid’s eye for talent cannot be argued with. The legendary former India batter not only took India to the 50-over World Cup final and the T20 World Cup title, but also steered India to Under-19 World Cup glory in 2018. Part of that U19 team was India’s current captain Shubman Gill, who was also named the ‘Player of the Tournament’.
With Gill recently being named India’s new ODI captain, a viral video has resurfaced on social media. The video shows former India pacer RP Singh – now part of the BCCI’s selection committee – narrate how Dravid accurately predicted Gill to become India’s future skipper.
“Just before he (Dravid) became the coach, we were having a conversation. When you sit down with a senior player, one does get talking. I asked him ‘We have so many captains in our team, who do you think will be the prominent captain of the Indian team?’. We had many captains, Virat Kohli, Rohit Sharma, Suryakumar Yadav, Hardik Pandya. He said ‘Shubman Gill’,” revealed RP Singh on Sony Sports.
The video dates back to July, during India’s five-match Test series against England. That series was the first glimpse of Shubman Gill as Indian captain.
RP Singh then revealed more details of his interaction with Dravid.
“I told him, ‘But he (Gill) isn’t playing all three formats.’ He replied, ‘Leave that, he has a lot of potential. If not today, then tomorrow, nobody will be able to stop him. He will be the Indian captain and will serve his position well’. Dravid had said this when he was not playing all the formats!”
While Gill did not have any leadership role during Dravid’s time as head coach of India, he has now been earmarked as India’s long-term captain. Gill is now captain in both Tests and ODIs, as well as vice-captain in T20Is.