Reward for Kohli: Dravid

Former India captain Rahul Dravid on Monday asked Gautam Gambhir not to feel left out of the squad after his Delhi mate Virat Kohli was appointed Mahendra Singh Dhoni’s deputy for the Asia Cup.

Although Dravid felt that Kohli had been rewarded for his splendid display in Australia, he said the former India under-19 captain still had some way to go to establish himself and go a step further.

“He has had a great tour of Australia. He has done incredibly well in Tests and in the ODIs....the selectors have given him a bit of reward,” said Dravid.

“Having said that, Virat is the first to recognise that he has got to establish himself to go another step further. I think we know from the past that by just being the vice-captain, you are not going to be the next captain.

“It’s a good recognition for his form, I feel people like Gautam shouldn’t feel left out from the team. But at the moment, Dhoni is doing a good job, so you don’t need to look anywhere else,” Dravid further added at a function to unveil Rajasthan Royals’ team jersey ahead of IPL V.

Dravid, who will lead the Royals in the upcoming edition of the IPL, felt that having shared the dressing room recently with Sachin Tendulkar (in the Test rubber in Australia), he can vouch that the champion batsman was not solely focused on getting his much talked about 100th international ton.

“Having shared the dressing room with Sachin, I don’t think Sachin himself is thinking about it. Every time a batsman wants to go out and score a century to help the team to win. It will happen,” said the 39-year-old Dravid.

About his own decision to accept the captaincy of the Rajasthan Royals after the departure of Shane Warne, Dravid said he it was an easy decision to make.

“It’s a totally different scenario (from the international level) –- it’s a combination of domestic and international players and I am looking forward to it. I really enjoyed my year in Rajasthan Royals and we have a good bunch of players, so from that point of view it was an easy decision when it was put forward to me.”

Team’s co-owner and Bollywood star Shilpa Shetty-Kundra said the team would miss Warne, but was looking forward to Dravid leading the team.

“We will miss Warney. But he will be always there in spirit. We are thankful to the legend Dravid who has agreed to lead the team even as we say goodbye to Warne,” she said.