'Nice to see them growing' – Rahul Dravid on Prithvi Shaw, Mayank Agarwal

Shaw, who has four scores of 100 or more in his last 10 innings across formats including a 136 against South Africa A in the recently-concluded four-day game in Bengaluru and 188 against Windies A in a first-class fixture last month, has become a mainstay of the Indian second-string set-up at the young age of 18.

His opening partner, Mayank Agarwal, is a comparatively late bloomer at 27 but also has four centuries in his last 10 outings, including a marathon innings of 220 against South Africa, which helped the Indians win the 'Test' by an innings and 30 runs on Tuesday, 7 August.

"Both Mayank and Prithvi have shown over the last year or so with their performances that they are playing really good cricket. They played well in the tour of England and they played well here as well. They have put in some really good performances and it is nice to see them developing and growing as players," Dravid said.

Agarwal scored three List-A centuries during the 'A' tour of England last month and while he couldn't score a first-class hundred on that tour, he made up for it by getting a double at home. Shaw, who got one first-class and two List-A centuries in England, averages a staggering 60.78 from 13 first-class matches.

Are the two pushing for an India call-up any time soon? "Whether there is an opportunity or not is not for me to say, is not for me to decide," Dravid said.

"But they have played really well and Mayank was quite exceptional in this game – the way he played and the pace at which he played as well – and Prithvi has shown continuous improvement in every level that he has played."

With the senior team currently busy with a five-Test assignment in England, the time is right to try out some of India's white-ball players who are yet to make a mark in red-ball cricket, including leg-spinner Chahal and fast bowler Mohammed Siraj.

Chahal, who picked up nine wickets from eight matches during India's limited-overs games against Ireland and England that preceded the Tests, has also been touted as a potential red-ball player, but Dravid believes he needs more games under his belt.

"For Chahal, obviously he has had a lot of success in white-ball cricket and for us. I have been seeing him for the past two-and-a-half years, when he first came to Australia. But there he only played in white-ball matches; he wasn't necessarily considered too much a red-ball player as such," Dravid said.

"But yeah, a large part of this is to give him opportunity to see how he bowls in red-ball cricket because he hasn't played red-ball cricket. That is what the 'A' team opportunity is about. We are here to supplement and do what is best to make the Indian team stronger.

"We want to be able to create good players for the Indian team and Chahal is someone who they were very keen on seeing how he does in red-ball cricket. There's no doubt he has got skill, as we can see, but he definitely needs to play a lot more."

About Siraj, who has picked up 25 wickets in the last three first-class games including a 10-wicket match haul in the South Africa game in Bengaluru and three four-wicket hauls in the UK, Dravid was all praise.

"There is no doubt – the way he has played in the last three four-day games for us, in England and here, it has been absolutely terrific. He has taken 26 (25) wickets in the last three games," Dravid said.

Siraj has had a less-than-convincing beginning to his international career, returning three wickets from the three Twenty20 Internationals he has played so far at 49.33, but Dravid is not worried. "He has played only 17 or 18 first-class games so even in his white-ball cricket, I wouldn't judge him so quickly because he hasn't played that much. The more he plays the better he will get."