Rahul Dravid would be proud of how his boys played in the U-19 World Cup, dominating the entire tournament and staying unbeaten throughout.
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The World Cup triumph was a complete team effort with different players stepping up during different stages of the tournament to take the team through.
These young Indian colts caught the imagination of the nation, with so many of them becoming household names.
And with the IPL auction held during the weekend before the big semi-final, a lot of them secured hefty contracts from IPL franchises.
While the kids would have ecstatic to have received such stellar contracts, Rahul Dravid was very stressed during the time of the IPL auction.
The Indian team was having an incredible run in the World Cup and Rahul Dravid did not want the IPL auction to serve as a distraction for the players, who were very excited about receiving multi-crore contracts.
He had asked the team to focus on the World Cup and not the IPL auction, as the IPL auction would come and go every year, but this U-19 World Cup experience would never make a second occurrence in their lives.
“That week during the IPL auction was a bit stressful but credit to the boys, once that was done they came back to practice and switched on. Only those three days I was a bit worried,” Dravid told the media.
Rahul was speaking to the media after landing back in Mumbai.
Dravid was impressed how the young boys showed so much maturity in this day and age of social media, keeping themselves focussed during the entire tournament.
“We had some loose curfews, sometimes they followed it. What impressed me was the level of maturity they showed in the age of social media, most of which I am not even aware of.” Dravid added.
Prithvi Shaw, Shubman Gill, Anukul Roy, Shivam Mavi and Kamlesh Nagarkoti were paid big money contracts and would be hoping to take their careers to the next level, rubbing shoulders with international stars in the IPL from here on.
