Samit Dravid gets T20 contract

Samit Dravid, son of India's T20 World Cup-winning head coach Rahul Dravid, secured his first T20 contract on Thursday (July 25).

The auction for the 2024 season of the Maharaja T20 Trophy, a revamped tournament of the previously existing Karnataka Premier League, took place on Thursday (July 25) at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bengaluru.

Over 70 players secured contracts for the latest season of the league, with wicketkeeper LR Chethan garnering the highest bid, of INR 8.6 lakh. He signed for the Bengaluru Blasters. 

Samit Dravid signs first T20 contract

But one player stood out at the auction — Samit Dravid. Son of Indian legend and now T20 World Cup-winning head coach Rahul Dravid, the 18-year-old came out of player category C and was snapped up by Mysuru Warriors for INR 50,000. This is his first-ever franchise T20 contract.

Samit's first claim to fame came back in 2016, when he scored 125 for Mallya Aditi International School at the age of 10, in the fifth edition of the Tiger Cup, a school tournament conducted at U12 and U14 levels.

Four years later, he was at it again. In February 2020, he slammed a double century in a 50 overs match, during the BTR Shield U14 tournament, to secure victory for Mallya Aditi over Sri Kumaran. Eight days later, he repeated the feat, this time in the final of the tournament as Mallya Aditi defeated BGS National Public School.

Samit's all-round skills come to the fore for Karnataka age-level teams

In 2023, Samit was named in Karnataka's squad for the Vinoo Mankad Trophy, India's premier U19 List A tournament. Batting in the middle-order, he scored 122 runs in four innings, including a knock of 87 (95) against eventual champions Mumbai in the second round of 16 encounter. With the ball, he chipped in with three wickets bowling seam-up.

His best form in youth cricket was soon to come, as he was selected to represent Karnataka in the Cooch Behar Trophy, the domestic competition for U19 players. Karnataka won the tournament, defeating Mumbai in the final earlier this year.

Samit featured in all eight matches. After a relatively quiet start to the tournament, his campaign was boosted by a match against Jammu and Kashmir in which he scored 98, as well as taking 2-25 and 1-26. He followed this up with 1-25 and 3-24 along with a dogged 40 against Madhya Pradesh.

In the semifinal, Samit's 16-over spell of 3-17 helped skittle Tamil Nadu for 126. He then took 2-60 against Mumbai in the final before teammate Prakar Chaturvedi stole the show with a knock of 404*.

Overall, he finished with 362 runs at an average of 36.2, and 16 wickets at 19.3.

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