The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) has appointed former skipper Rahul Dravid as the consultant of the Indian team, ahead of the five-match Test series against England starting 9 July in Trent Bridge.
Dravid, who has been mentoring Indian Premier League (IPL) franchisee Rajasthan Royals (RR), is expected to join Team India latest by Monday, ahead of the second warm-up fixture against English County side Derbyshire, starting 1 July.
BCCI secretary Sanjay Patel informed that the team management approached the board for appointing Dravid as the consultant, and the former captain agreed when he was asked by the board.
"It was the coach (Duncan Fletcher) who approached us on behalf of the team and said it would be good to have Rahul with his vast experience spend some time with the boys ahead of the series," Patel told ESPNcricinfo. "We immediately requested Rahul and he readily agreed."
The 41-year-old has a superb record on the English soil as he has scored 1376 runs at an average of 68.80 in 13 Test matches. In the last England tour, when the Indian team was hammered 4-0 by the Andrew Strauss-led outfit, Dravid was the lone bright spot. He racked up 461 runs, including three centuries at the Lord's, The Oval and Trent Bridge.
After his retirement in 2011, this is the first time The Wall is associated with the Indian team in any capacity. The former batsman scored 13,288 runs in 164 Tests and 10,889 runs in 344 ODIs during his 15-year long international career for India.
Earlier in March, former Indian captain Sunil Gavaskar had suggested that Dravid should take over as the coach of the Indian team, because of the enormous international experience he has.
"Rahul Dravid is one man who is enormously respected and was a successful captain, having won series in West Indies and England," Gavaskar said. "When he speaks, the Indian players, some of whom are superstars, listen to him as they know how much preparation went into his game."
But the stylish right-hander, who scored six of his 36 Test hundreds in England, had turned down the suggestion because of time constrain.
"I am happy that he (Gavaskar) said I am capable of doing the job," Dravid responded. "But the job requires a lot of time, almost 11 months a year. I have just retired and at the moment because of time constraints, I have to decline."
