TN pick 17-year-old Radhakrishnan after discussions with Rahul Dravid and Venkatesh Prasad

Radhakrishnan, who plays for Globe Trotters in the Tamil Nadu Cricket Association first division league, was a part of the Indian U-19 team that played England in the recent ODI series and scored 65 in the one innings he played. Now on the recommendation of junior national coach Dravid and selector Venkatesh Prasad, Radhakrishnan finds himself in the squad for the Vijay Hazare Trophy national limited-overs tournament

"The reports from Dravid and Prasad have been excellent. More than Dravid, I spoke at length to Prasad. He gave a positive feedback about the boy. He said that his adaptability and thinking process is very good. Our coaches Hrishikesh Kanitkar and L Balaji too had a lot of good things to say about him. He has done well for India U19 and I guess that's good enough to prove his quality," TN chief selector S Sharath was quoted as saying by Cricbuzz

Even the unassuming Radhakrishnan was surprised by the call-up.

"Playing for India U19 was a great feeling for me as Dravid was my childhood role model. But I never expected to be picked for the State side and it came as a surprise," Radhakrishnan said, 

This is, however, not the first time that Dravid has been consulted by a state team. Mumbai gave Shaw the Ranji cap after speaking to Dravid. The opener scored a century on debut in the Ranji semi-final against Tamil Nadu.

Squad:

Vijay Shankar (c), Dinesh Karthik, V Ganga Sridhar Raju, B Indrajith, B Aparajith, M Kaushik Gandhi, N Jagadeesan, A Ashwin Crist, M Mohammed, W Anthony Dhas, R Rohit, Rahil S Shah, M Ashwin, Sai Kishore, Washington Sundar, S Radhakrishnan