Rahul Dravid. (Photo Source: Alex Davidson-ICC/ICC via Getty Images)
One of the legends of the game, Rahul Dravid has never touched the gold in world championships. India were joint-winners alongside Sri Lanka in the 2002 Champions Trophy but when it comes to World Cups, Dravid has seen more misery than others. In 2003, India lost the ODI World Cup final against Australia while under his leadership, the Men in Blue were eliminated from the group stage itself in the 2007 edition of the competition.
Dravid’s long-time friend Sachin Tendulkar won the ODI World Cup in 2011, in which he failed to get into. He retired from international cricket in 2012 and continued to play IPL but even there, the legendary cricketer couldn’t find success. Later in his career, Dravid joined coaching and achieved enormous success as the head coach of the U19 Indian team but the same didn’t transpire when he joined the senior squad.
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Under his guidance, India qualified for the semi-final of the 2022 T20 World Cup but failed to qualify for the final after losing to England. In the 2023 ODI World Cup, India were the favourite to win the tournament but eventually lost to Australia in the final. The ongoing T20 World Cup 2024 is Dravid’s last tournament with the senior team as he is stepping aside as the head coach of the Indian team.
Keeping that in mind, former India cricketer Virender Sehwag stated that everyone in the current Indian team should be inspired enough to win the trophy in honour of Dravid. He is one of the greatest talents India have ever produced and Sehwag wants the Rohit Sharma-led side to do well and hand him the opportunity to be called world champion.
“We played the 2011 World Cup for Sachin Tendulkar. So, this T20 World Cup can be for Rahul Dravid. At least as a coach he gets to win the World Cup and get the badge of being a World Cup winner, which he didn’t get as a player, Sehwag told Cricbuzz.
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India are to play England in the second semi-final of the T20 World Cup 2024 in Guyana and the winner of the match will be playing South Africa in the final of the tournament at Barbados on June 29.