Sunil Gavaskar, while commentating during the T20I series between India and New Zealand, confirmed that the new Indian head coach Rahul Dravid has brought back the culture of the former Indian cricketers presenting caps to Indian debutants.
Recently, when the bowling all-rounder Harshal Patel made his debut in the second T20I in Ranchi, it was the former Indian fast bowler Ajit Agarkar who was asked by Rahul Dravid to present Harshal’s first cap to him.
Agarkar was there on the ground as one of the Star Sports commentators and since, the commentators are also part of the bubble, like the cricketers, Agarkar was allowed to go into the Indian team huddle and present the cap to Harshal.
Harshal made a mark with his very first appearance in Indian colors as he earned himself a player of the match award for a match-defining spell.
The culture of former cricketers presenting caps to debutants was not there under Kohli-Shastri regime: Sunil Gavaskar
Sunil Gavaskar said that the culture of former cricketers presenting the caps to debutants was first started by Anil Kumble when he took over as the head coach of the Indian cricket team in 2016, but he left after a year because of his issues with the captain and under the next regime of Virat Kohli and Ravi Shastri, the former cricketers were not asked to do the honor.
However, the regime has changed again with Kohli resigning as the T20I captain and Shastri leaving as the head coach and with Rahul Dravid taking charge now, the former cricketers are asked to present the debut caps to the youngsters again.
Sunil Gavaskar is one of those commentators who don’t really shy away from speaking his mind even while speaking about the coach or the captain or any big personality, because the little master holds his own stature in Indian cricket, having brought India plenty of laurels during his playing days.
