India’s five Test matches against England gave the team management a chance to experiment with some of the next generation stars. The likes of Sarfaraz Khan, Devdutt Padikkal, Rajat Patidar, Akash Deep and Dhruv Jurel all made their debuts in the series and their performances were good enough to cement their place in the team, to say the least. However, it has now been learned that some of these debuts did not come from head coach Rahul Dravid or skipper Rohit Sharma. Instead, it was chief selector Ajit Agarkar who pushed the team management to select some of these players.

According to reports, Agarkar suggested Dhruv Jurel as the wicketkeeper to mentor Dravid and captain Rohit. India tried putting KS Bharat behind the stumps in the first few games but the wicketkeeper-batsman failed to impress. However, once Dhruv came into the team, he made a lasting impression both as a wicketkeeper and as a batsman.

“It was Agarkar who came up with Jurel’s name. The team management didn’t have much confidence in him as he was still a rookie. A youngster who didn’t have many red-ball opportunities in the top league was chosen to go straight into the Indian team “It’s always a brave decision in an important series like England’s, but Agarkar has seen enough to warrant the youngster.” hindustan times BCCI sources said.

Earlier, after the Dharamshala Test, Dravid himself revealed that it was Agarkar who pushed him and Rohit to pick some uncapped players in the squad.

“Big compliments to Ajit and his team as well. A lot of young players have come in… As a coach and captain, we don’t actually see a lot of them. We don’t see that much in domestic cricket The game was what Ajit and his selection team did. They pushed us. They challenged us to pick some youngsters and they came here and performed well. Being a selector is not Easy. You will always get criticism but there will also be huge support coming back to Ajit and his team,” Dravid said in an interview with Jio Cinema.