Rahul Dravid believes in preparing his team well ahead of their games but not on match day. The former India captain and mentor of Rajasthan Royals insists such an approach allows the players to express themselves freely without any pressure during matches.

“If you try telling people something at the last moment, you know you have lost them," said Dravid. "The last moment is not meant to say anything, but to just keep quiet and let them do what they want. A lot of the preparation happens a lot before. On the day of the game, honestly, we don’t do much. We just let people be and let them play their game.

“If they have prepared well and practised well and if they feel confident about their game and they have got clear plans, clear roles and clear strategies, they will go out there and be able express themselves. You can’t give pep talks.

“I personally don’t believe in pep talks and speeches and those things. We don’t do any of that here. If anyone needs a pep talk and speech at the last minute, well then he is at the wrong place.”

Dravid said what matters in T20 cricket was the clarity of roles of the players and execution of plans.

“Roles are important,” he stresses. “We sit down with players at start of every season and tell them why they are in this team and what we think their roles would be.

“So at least we are giving them that information about what their roles might be in this team and how they should go about executing those roles.

“And then it is up to them – they have to do the difficult part, which is executing the skills,” he added.

Rajasthan have fared well so far with seven wins from 12 matches but need another victory to be assured of a place in the playoffs.

They will will be facing leaders Kings XI Punjab on Friday with their last league match against Mumbai Indians on Sunday.