To have Rahul Dravid as our coach, you couldn't ask for anything more: Devdutt Padikkal

The young Karnataka and Royal Challengers Bangalore batsman Devdutt Padikkal received his maiden national call-up for the Sri Lanka tour. His performances in domestic cricket over the last two seasons has earned him a spot on the Indian national team.

The white ball series against Sri Lanka begins on Sunday, July 18, with three ODIs followed by three T20Is. During an interaction with Star Sports, the 21-year-old recalled his first meeting with India's head coach for the tour, Rahul Dravid, dating back to his school days. 

"Being from the same school, the first time I actually met him was in one of our Sports Day events, where I had to present him with a bouquet - that is when I spoke to him for the first time," Devdutt Padikkal was quoted as saying on Star Sports. 

Padikkal, interestingly, shares some similarities with Dravid, such as attending the same school in St. Josephs and, of course, representing Karnataka and RCB, and now he has the opportunity to play for Team India.

“I have always been awestruck by how incredibly calm and gentle a human being he is. To have achieved so much in cricket and to be so down-to-earth, humble, and kind towards everyone is incredible to watch,” he added.

On having Rahul Dravid as the coach 

“To have him (Dravid) as our coach, you couldn't ask for anything more, and to have a mentor like him beside you, it's just a great feeling, and hopefully, I can pick up a lot of things from him,” the RCB batsman concluded.

India Squad for SL tour

Shikhar Dhawan (Captain), Prithvi Shaw, Devdutt Padikkal, Ruturaj Gaikwad, Suryakumar Yadav, Manish Pandey, Hardik Pandya, Nitish Rana, Ishan Kishan (Wicket-keeper), Sanju Samson (Wicket-keeper), Yuzvendra Chahal, Rahul Chahar, K Gowtham, Krunal Pandya, Kuldeep Yadav, Varun Chakravarthy, Bhuvneshwar Kumar (Vice-captain), Deepak Chahar, Navdeep Saini, and Chetan Sakariya.

Net Bowlers: Ishan Porel, Sandeep Warrier, Arshdeep Singh, Sai Kishore, and Simarjeet Singh.