Former Indian head coach Rahul Dravid has observed the rising Indian stars from close quarters. Right from their Under-19 days to their selection in the Indian team, Dravid has kept a close eye on the journeys of players like Rishabh Pant, Shubman Gill, Sanju Samson, Abhishek Sharma, Priyansh Arya, and Anshul Kamboj.
Dravid said the duo of Rishabh Pant and Sanju Samson showed a lot of promise right from their younger days. Pant was part of the Under-19 team in the 2016 World Cup, which was coached by Dravid. The left-hander has played some breathtaking knocks in Test cricket and has played a key role in the team’s success, especially on overseas tours.
Sanju Samson has also impressed in the T20I format, and he has given good starts to the team along with Abhishek Sharma, who is the number one batter in the T20I rankings.
Shubman Gill was India’s top run-getter in the 2018 Under-19 World Cup and has performed consistently for the senior team.
Rahul Dravid said on Ravichandran Ashwin’s YouTube Channel, “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.
“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.”
Dravid added, “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.
“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,” Dravid added.
Priyansh Arya scored 475 runs for Punjab Kings in IPL 2025 at a blistering strike rate of 179.24 and thus impressed one and all. Anshul Kamboj bagged eight wickets in as many matches for CSK in IPL 2025.
