Vaibhav Suryavanshi, a truly special cricketer: Dravid

“We all know that Vaibhav is not a finished product yet, but exceptionally talented. He needs to keep improving, to be ready to go through the ups and downs,” Rahul Dravid said

Hyderabad: A combination of good bat speed, high backlift and so quickly he picks up the length of the bowlers makes Vaibhav Suryavanshi a truly special cricketer, says Rahul Dravid, head coach of Rajasthan Royals.

“To have that level of fearlessness, unfazed by what was happening around, the natural strength and the range of strokes is something remarkable about Vaibhav,” Dravid said during the Star Sports Press Room interaction on Wednesday.

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“We all know that Vaibhav is not a finished product yet, but exceptionally talented. He needs to keep improving, to be ready to go through the ups and downs,” he said. “Well ,from our side, we always ensure that he plays the way he loves to – very aggressive and willing to express himself,” Dravid said.

“It is unfair to give credit to me only. He came through a system. The entire team at Rajasthan Royals played its part in Vaibhav’s success over the last four months before the IPL began,” he said.

“Yes, Vaibhav has a long way to go, more importantly, with all the adulation around him. Definitely, I don’t think we can completely avoid all that we have been experiencing after that century against Gujarat Titans,” Dravid said.

“But, it is imperative that one is ready for potential failures too and be mindful of that,” he said. “The best part is that Vaibhav was made to feel to be in the comfort zone right from the day he joined Royals, especially in those short camps before the IPL. We ensured he was not confused by keeping things simple. We encourage his aggressive brand of cricket,” the T-20 World Cup winning coach said.

“We are conscious of ensuring a support system to Vaibhav and it is exciting and challenging, especially a task with so much attention on him,” he said. Reflecting on the Royals’ campaign so far, Dravid felt that if only they had won three of the four close games, the story on the points table would have been different. “We probably were not able to finish off some of those games despite bringing down the target considerably in the final overs. We needed those small moments and breaks to go our way,” Dravid said.

“Still, we will love to take it match by match and not think too much about the play-offs, given the fact that all teams are very close in terms of standard and anyone can slide down quickly,” he said. On the use of technology, Dravid felt that one could only use the data to make some decisions, but you have to give room to the cricketing knowledge in the group and not let data master (the think-tank).

Dravid said that they were monitoring the progress of injured Sanju Samson daily. He also didn’t agree that Dhruv Jurel was not living up to the expectations, suggesting to the media to consider the position where he batted and the number of balls he faced and not compare with those ‘cap’ holders.