Samit Dravid's 'aggressive' style and 'wow' shots impress, but father Rahul Dravid emphasizes importance of discipline and hard work in his development

Growing up as the son of former India captain Rahul Dravid, Samit has always felt the weight of his famous surname. Over the years, however, he has learned to handle the pressure that comes with it. This maturity and resilience have now paid off as he earns his maiden India U-19 call-up for a multi-format series against Australia, to be held in September and October.

Speaking to the Indian Express on Sunday, a day after the big announcement by the BCCI, Samit’s childhood coach Karthik Jeshwanth revealed that he and Rahul have both repeatedly reminded him through the years that he will strictly be judged on his performance and will have to learn to adapt himself to the continuous outside noise owing to the surname.

“Samit has grown up knowing what his father’s stature is and knows that there is going to be a lot of pressure. So that’s what Rahul and myself have been telling him, not to be bothered about any outside noise or attention. He will be judged on his own skills and what he does on the field. He has to learn to live with the attention without it affecting his batting," he said.

Samit, a fast-bowling all-rounder, is currently in action in the Maharaja T20 Trophy in Karnataka. As a middle-order batter in seven innings at a strike rate of 114 for Mysuru Warriors, he has scored 82 runs, although the side has yet to utilise his medium-pace bowling abilities. However, the primary reason behind his India selection was his performance in the Cooch Behar Trophy, a four-day format domestic tournament for the U-19 level, earlier this year. He scored 362 runs and picked up 16 wickets in only eight matches for Karnataka.

‘It’s the approach that had his team-mates here go ‘wow’’

Coach of Mysore Warriors, RX Murali, who also mentored India batters like Mayank Agarwal and KL Rahul, found Samit down-to-earth and even-tempered.

“I have no doubt, Samit has it in him to go all the way,” he told the national daily. “I can’t even imagine the pressure of the shoes he has to fill. But we make sure that in our team that we don’t discuss all that. Luckily for us, the boy is grounded, sweet, and all his team-mates have nothing but good stuff to share about him. He is pretty easy-going. He has no airs about where he comes from."

Although a Samit has a bit of senior Dravid in his batting techniques, with the front-foot defence and the square cut, videos of which have gone on social media, Murali's first impression of the 18-year-old was that he found him an aggressive batter with some "wow" shots in his arsenal.

“It’s the way his hands move through the line of the ball that stood out for me. His head and feet position, too. He is very aggressive and brave in his mind-set. It’s the approach that had his team-mates here go ‘wow’ at some of his shots. He has quite a few shots actually beyond the clips you might have all seen — the cover drive where he leans well into the shot, the straight drive, the pull of course and the ability to hit the lofted shots. To turn the conventional shots into aerial, like the inside-out aerial cover drive," he said.

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