KL Rahul would've been told he's next-in-line: Irfan Pathan on Rahul Dravid's communication with India captain

Former Indian all-rounder Irfan Pathan has lavished praise on head coach Rahul Dravid ahead of the India-South Africa T20Is, which gets underway on June 09. Pathan, who has played under Dravid's captaincy, hailed The Wall for his knack for being crystal clear with his players in terms of what he wants from them.

In this regard, Pathan feels Dravid must have given role clarity to a new-looking Indian squad which is gearing up to face Temba Bavuma-led Proteas in the five-match T20I series at home and must have communicated what he wants from KL Rahul the batter and captain (in regular skipper Rohit Sharma's absence).

Speaking on Star Sports, Irfan said, "It is extremely necessary and the clarity would have been given. I have been saying that since Rahul Dravid has come as a coach, I have played under his captaincy, his biggest thing is the clarity of role.

“It is not that the earlier coaches have not done that, Ravi Shastri was there and Virat Kohli was captaining, but he (Dravid) will take it one step ahead. I have full belief the communication would have happened and KL Rahul would have been told that if he is the captain, it means he is the next in line,” he further added.

The Dravid-Rahul-led Indian team will be eager to get off to a winning start in the five T20Is as they are preparing hard for this year's T20 World Cup, set to be held in Australia in the second half of 2022. For the SA series, Rohit, Virat Kohli and Jasprit Bumrah have been rested.

India's T20I squad for South Africa series -KL Rahul (Capt), Ruturaj Gaikwad, Ishan Kishan, Deepak Hooda, Shreyas Iyer, Rishabh Pant(VC) (wk), Dinesh Karthik (wk), Hardik Pandya, Venkatesh Iyer, Y Chahal, Kuldeep Yadav, Axar Patel, R Bishnoi, Bhuvneshwar, Harshal Patel, Avesh Khan, Arshdeep Singh, Umran Malik