Suryakumar Yadav. (Source – BCCI)
Rahul Dravid bid adieu to his coaching stint with the Indian team on a high, winning the T20 World Cup 2024. He has represented the Indian team as a player for 16 years and the former India captain did not get to lay his hands on the ICC trophy. He captained India in the World Cup 2007, and the team was ousted in the group stages. When India entered the finals of the T20 World Cup 2024, Dravid’s two-slide presentation ahead of the final provided the team with a different mindset.
Suryakumar Yadav shared that Dravid made a slide where the number of T20I games played by both seniors and juniors accrued over 800 games. The next slide read the number of T20Is played by the support staff and the former Inda wicketkeeper-batter was the only one to have represented the national team in T20Is. Suryakumar added that it was the veteran’s way of conveying that the players are more experienced in handling the game rather than the staff.
“He showed a graph of the number of T20I games the entire Indian team had played — from Virat bhai to Yashasvi Jaiswal (the most junior member). That number was 800-plus. And then he showed a second slide that had the number of games that the entire coaching staff, including Rahul bhai, had played — that number was 1,” said Suryakumar as quoted by HT.
“He (Dravid) said to us, ‘You are the best judge here to make the right call at the right time. So leave every other thing to us, go out there and enjoy your game’,” he added.
Dravid ends his coaching stint on a high
The 51-year-old took the reigns of the Indian team as the Head Coach in 2021. Under him the team reached the semifinals of T20 World Cup 2022, the World Test Championship Finals in 2023, and the World Cup 2023 Finals. But his moment arrived on his last day as the Indian coach as India won an ICC trophy after a hiatus of 11 years. The hunt for the next India Head Coach is on with the Gautam Gambhir emerging as the frontrunner as per reports.