Who will replace Rahul Dravid as India’s coach?
It was amidst huge excitement that Rahul Dravid was appointed as the head coach of the Indian team. His appointment brought in a sea of expectations. The T20 World Cup 2022 was expected to be his first major assignment. He along with captain Rohit Sharma was touted to be the magic potion the Indian team desperately needed.
India’s T20 World Cup 2022 run was eerily similar to the disastrous campaign two decades earlier where Dravid was the captain.
We look at the parallels between his captaincy and coaching tenure:
#1 The meticulous planning
Rahul Dravid inherited the captaincy of the Indian team from Sourav Ganguly in 2005. He brought in strategic planning for each opponent the team came up against. India became a solid chasing side under Dravid’s leadership. They set a record of winning 16 successive run-chases. India under his leadership too drew in the same strengths. Both captain and coach brought in the matchup theory seriously.
#2 The devise of a new template
India wasn’t considered to be a good chasing side until the Dravid era. The team always preferred to bat first up until his reign. It was under Dravid that the team started to chase. Quite similarly the team under his coaching regime adopted a new aggressive template.
They wanted to maximize the batting powerplay. The team was asked to continue their aggressive vein even during the middle overs. India’s brand of cricket was exciting and entertaining at the same time.
#3 Roping in youngsters
Rahul Dravid received little credit for grooming youngsters during his captaincy stint. Players like Suresh Raina, RP Singh, Sreesanth, Robin Uthappa, and others all flowered under him. His coaching journey so far has seen him entrusting the youngsters with responsibilities. Arshdeep Singh was India’s leading bowler in the T20 World Cup 2022. Avesh Khan, Deepak Hooda, and Ravi Bishnoi all were a big part of India’s World Cup plans.
#4 Falling back on experience in crunch situations
There couldn’t have been a starker similarity than this facet about his captaincy and coaching stint. Rahul Dravid after walking the long rope with youngsters choose to go ahead with the experience at the last moment. The likes of Ganguly, Zaheer Khan, and Anil Kumble who weren’t part of the team for a long time walked in for the World Cup.
It was pretty much the same story where players like Ravichandran Ashwin, Dinesh Karthik, and Mohammad Shami were included.
#5 Deviating from the gameplay formulated
As was his preference to falling back on the experience, Dravid at the eleventh hour changed the practiced template. India lost out to Bangladesh in the 2007 World Cup in addition to losing to Sri Lanka after being asked to chase.
The team floundered in what was considered to be its biggest strength. Even in the T20 World Cup, India fell back on conservative batting as opposed to the aggressive gameplay they prescribed right throughout.
#6 Failing at the finish line
The most unfortunate similarity between his tenure as captain and coach is his inability to win the big tournament. For all of his preparation to lead India into the ODI World Cup in 2007, the team was knocked out in the first round itself. India who had qualified for the semis in the T20 World Cup in 2022 failed to seize the big moment. They lost another golden opportunity to win an ICC event.
It can be argued that the teams under his reign start with much gung-ho but lose steam at the end. They overthrow the very template in crunch situations that the team adopts with great gusto. India wins games preceding the big tournaments but win little of note with Dravid at the helm. At least this is what the sample size has shown us so far!
