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India’s head coach Rahul Dravid was seen in a rare avatar before the Boxing Day Test between India and South Africa at the SuperSport Park, Centurion. Earlier, Dravid was seen providing throwdowns to batters and bowling off-spin. But he turned medium pacer and rolled his arm as the wet patches on the ground caused a delay in the toss.
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During his international career, Dravid was not even considered a part-time bowler. He had a total of five wickets to his name in international cricket after bowling 51 overs. The last time he bowled in Test cricket was in 2002 against West Indies In a high-scoring encounter that ended in a draw, then captain Sourav Ganguly used all 11 players as bowlers. He got the wicket of wicketkeeper-batter Ridley Jacobs who scored a century.
In the absence of Mohammed Shami, Prasidh Krishna was handed his debut cap in the longest format. Krishna has a total of 54 wickets to his name from 12 first-class games. He has made 17 appearances in ODIs and five in the shortest format. Dravid called Krishna a promising prospect before the coin toss.
"Prasidh is a promising prospect, but we have to be realistic that this is his first Test match. He has not had a lot of first-class cricket to fall back on because of a number of reasons. But I am hoping he has a good game and enjoys himself. It is such a lovely moment when we give out a new cap to someone," said Dravid.
South Africa is considered as the last frontier for India in red-ball cricket as they have never won a Test series there. Along with performances, Dravid feels that the team needs a bit of luck in these conditions as well.
"You need a little bit of luck as well in these conditions, there are lot of plays and misses, you want to be the one playing and missing, and hopefully, the opposition edging those same ones. I think there is a little bit of luck involved," the 50-year-old added.
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