‘I offered my services to Rahul Dravid’: Laxman Sivaramakrishnan claims Team India coach denied it out of respect

Former Indian cricketer Laxman Sivaramakrishnan claimed that he offered to work with Rahul Dravid as part of the Indian coaching team however, the latter denied it out of respect as the leg-spinner was too senior to him.

In response to a query on Twitter, Sivaramakrishnan wrote, "I offered my services to Rahul Dravid and he said that I was too senior to him, to be working under him with the spinners."

The leg-spinner played nine Tests for India and picked up 26 wickets at an average of 44.03. However, he was a force to reckon with domestic cricket with 154 wickets in 76 first-class matches. He has been working as a commentator for cricket matches in recent times.

Sairaj Bahutule is the current Indian spin bowling coach under Paras Mhambrey, who is a bowling coach succeeding Bharat Arun. Bahutule himself was a leg-spinner. Bhatule was appointed before the four-match Test series between India and Australia. India won the Test series 2-1. However, they lost the ODI series by the same margin.

India played with three spinners in the game in Axar Patel, Kuldeep Yadav and Ravindra Jadeja in the third ODI in Chennai. Axar despite being a touch-expensive picked couple of wickets, Kuldeep Yadav was the pick of the bowlers with three wickets and Ravindra Jadeja was economical.

However, despite the heroics from the spinners Australia defeated India by 21 runs in the third ODI to clinch the series 2-1 on Wednesday. Australia made a competitive 269 against India after opting to bat. Leg-spinner Adam Zampa (4/45) shone bright with the ball as Australia bundled out India for 248 in 49.1 overs. The Australian top-order batters got starts but failed to make it big. Opening the innings, Mitchell Marsh top-scored with a run-a-ball 47 while Travis Head made 33 off 31 balls.