Did Wasim Jaffer just wish Rahul Dravid luck for India's Sri Lanka tour? Solve his riddle

With India's second-string side that is going to be touring Sri Lanka set to be led by Shikhar Dhawan (while Virat Kohli leads the first team in England), the BCCI is yet to confirm Ravi Shastri's stand-in for the limited-overs series despite having announced the squad on Thursday night. While all fingers are currently pointing towards former India captain Rahul Dravid, an affirmation on whether the once India A coach will be donning the coaching hat once again is yet awaited. However, India's Test specialist Wasim Jaffer might have just teased Dravid's appointment in one of his latest cryptic tweets. 

Jaffer, who has assumed the role of a cricket pundit on Twitter post his retirement and on days when he is not coaching Punjab Kings' batting unit, wished luck to India's Team B, which was announced last night. In his cryptic, yet easy to solve tweet, Jaffer made a special mention of the captain and presumably the coach by sharing coded Bollywood images instead of their actual images. 

Firstly, Jaffer made a direct reference to Shikhar Dhawan with the image of Akshay Kumar's character from the Bollywood movie Gabbar. Notably, Dhawan is fondly called Gabbar, thereby drawing a straight line of connection between the two. In the second still, Jaffer shared a still of Amitabh Bachchan - perhaps a reference to Deewar which translates to Wall in English. Former India cricketer Rahul Dravid is popularly known as 'The Wall' owing to his skilled defensive play, thereby drawing a connection between Amitabh Bachchan and the Indian cricketer. 

However, netizens have disputed the claim, by arguing that the still of Amitabh Bachchan is not from Deewar but from another movie of his, Coolie. It still remains unclear whether Rahul Dravid has been appointed as India's interim coach or not while Wasim Jaffer's new picture riddle is for everyone to solve. 

Rahul Dravid to coach India in Shastri's absence? 

As the tour of the island nation is set to take place at a time when the main team will be busy with its Test appointment against England, the BCCI has announced a squad of 'white ball specialists' in order to clear its selection doubts for the T20 World Cup later this year. While the board is yet to name the squad and the management staff, speculations around the interim substitute of head coach Ravi Shastri have already begun.

Amongst the pool of interim coaches for the Sri Lanka tour, former India captain Rahul Dravid has come out as the frontrunner. Dravid, who has donned multiple roles for Team India throughout his career, has never been a part of the Men in Blue's managerial staff. However, the Bengaluru-lad has coached the India A and the U-19 team from 2016 to 2019 before he was appointed as the Director of Cricket Operations at the National Cricket Academy (NCA). 

In the absence of Ravi Shastri and his team, the BCCI is mulling to bring Rahul Dravid on board along with his support staff from NCA to manage the team in Sri Lanka. Pertinently, it has been speculated that after Anil Kumble's departure as the Head Coach, the BCCI had offered Dravid to be at the helm of Team India, however, the former cricketer had turned down the offer citing personal reasons. 

The BCCI on Thursday announced a 20-man jumbo squad for the limited-overs series against Sri Lanka. The board has confirmed that Shikhar Dhawan will be leading the side against Sri Lanka whereas Bhuvaneshwar Kumar will be his deputy. Ishan Kishan and Sanju Samson have been picked as wicket-keeper batsmen as Rishabh Pant and Wriddhiman Saha will be busy with the Test series against England. 

CSK and RCB openers that rocked the IPL 2020 and 2021 as well, Devdutt Padikkal and Ruturaj Gaikwad have earned their maiden call-ups whereas the spin duo of Kuldeep Yadav and Yuzvendra Chahal could be seen back in action after a long hiatus. Rajasthan Royals' young pacer Chetan Sakariya, who had an impressive IPL debut this year, has also earned himself a call-up for the national team whereas Chennai's expensive buy Krishnappa Gowtham could be handed his maiden cap. 

Other notable players included in the squad for the three T20s and three ODIs against Sri Lanka include Nitish Rana, Manish Pandey, Suryakumar Yadav, Varun Chakravarthy, and Chetan Sakariya. While Chakravarthy has been included after missing out on debut against England as he failed the Yo-Yo test, Rahul Tewatia who also failed the fitness test has been excluded from the group. 

India's Full Squad against Sri Lanka: 

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, Chetan Sakariya

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