Rahul Dravid “Has An Advantage…”: Ravi Shastri’s Verdict On Legend’s Tenure As Indian Cricket Team Coach

Current India head coach Rahul Dravid remains one of the most respected figures in the sport. Dravid came into the Indian team as the head coach after Ravi Shastri decided to step aside in 2021. Under Dravid’s guidance, India have done well but failed to lift the ICC Trophy — T20 World Cup 2022 — that the country desperately desires. Speaking of Dravid’s performances as the head coach of the Indian team, Shastri said that the former needs to be given more time.

“It takes time. It took me time and it’s going to take him time too. But Rahul has an advantage that he was at the NCA, he was with the A team as well and now he’s here too. He is experienced with contemporary cricketer players and with the system. Give him time,” Shastri told Sports Tak.

Shastri was then asked about India’s failures in the T20 World Cup and the Asia Cup. The former India head coach said that India won two Asia Cups in his tenure but no one remembers that.

“In our country, public memory is short. If you have to win, you have to win. During my tenure, we won two Asia Cups, but no one remembers. Has anyone mentioned the Asia Cup? We’ve won it twice. And no one talks about it. But when we lose in the Asia Cup, then the tournament comes into the picture. Why?” he added.

At the end, Dravid said that India are playing ‘too much cricket’ at the moment, sometimes leading to two different national teams playing parallely against separate teams.

“There is too much cricket. The volume of cricket is so much. For all you know, India might be playing a Test series somewhere but a T20 tournament is going on somewhere else with an Indian team. Many times when I was coach, we were in one country, India were in another country playing Sri Lanka or someone proper. You have to see what is important in that year and accordingly get the players to primarily focus on playing those games. So, if there’s a World Cup of 50-over cricket coming, emphasis should be on the 50-over format. If it’s a T20 World Cup year, emphasis should be on that format and you have to decide who your nucleus of 15-18 players are and they should be playing,” he said.