The lanky offie may not have found favour for the Pakistan series, but his exploits haven’t gone unnoticed with one of the men who matter most in Indian cricket right now — captain Rahul Dravid.

In a heartening turn of events for the in-form Bengal players who narrowly missed out on the Ranji title against Uttar Pradesh last month, Dravid was learnt to have expressed satisfaction with the performances of Lahiri and dashing batsman Abhishek Jhunjhunwala.

A source close to the BCCI revealed that midway into the one-day series in Pakistan, Dravid spoke highly of Jhunjhunwala and Lahiri, adding that he would “keep an eye on what these two players are upto”. It was learnt that Dravid was particularly “impressed with the manner in which Jhunjhunwala scored his debut century (in the Railways match)”. The 23-year-old batsman burst into the circuit with a match-winning ton at Eden that powered Bengal into the semis. “Dravid said he had heard in great detail and from various quarters of Abhishek’s knock, and it was time to nurture him for the future,” the source told Newsline recently.