NEW DELHI: When Rahul Dravid and Rohit Sharma sat side by side in their opening media interaction as head coach and T20I captain respectively in November 2021, there was due acknowledgement that they needed to set things right for the T20 World Cup that was a year down the line. With the tenures of Ravi Shastri and Virat Kohli coming to an end after bowing out at the group stage of the 2021 edition in the United Arab Emirates, Indian cricket was aiming to take a fresh guard.
While a Test series in South Africa and the final Test of the series in England were also important assignments in a jampacked calendar, it must have been clear to Dravid, from the experience of his own playing career, that World Cups are what he will most likely be judged on. His contract is until the 2023 ODI World Cup on home soil.
Right from the time that he took over, though, he's had to face challenges on multiple fronts with the injury to pace spearhead Jasprit Bumrah being just the latest setback. It all began with the Kohli captaincy saga-he was removed from the ODI captaincy against his will so that Sharma could lead in both the white-ball formats just weeks into Dravid's tenure as the differences between the star batter and the BCCI top brass played out in the open. Dravid is no stranger to these personality clashes in Indian cricket considering he became captain after the sordid Ganguly-Chappell episode, but it still wasn't an ideal initiation to his job as coach.
It perhaps had a bearing on the results in South Africa. Against a South African unit, also undergoing a transition, a maiden series victory on its shores seemed there for the taking, especially after a 113-run win in the opening Test. But India squandered the opportunity as South Africa bounced back to clinch a 2-1 series victory. India also lost the ODI series 0-3. Kohli gave up the Test captaincy in the aftermath of the Test series.
This story is from the October 01, 2022 edition of Hindustan Times.
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This story is from the October 01, 2022 edition of Hindustan Times.
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