Former Indian head coach Ravi Shastri has put his weight behind his successor Rahul Dravid to deliver as the head coach. After the 2021 T20 World Cup, Dravid took the reins from Ravi Shastri. India’s former number three tenure will expire after the 2023 ODI World Cup and renew of his contract will depend on the team’s performance in the major event.
India qualified for the semifinal of 2022 T20 World Cup but they couldn’t go all the way as they were beaten by England by 10 wickets. India has also qualified for the final of the World Test Championship final and Dravid will hope that the team could break the ICC major trophy drought under his stint.
Shastri feels Dravid has all the coaching experience as he was associated with India A and Under-19 teams and also worked at the National Cricket Academy before taking the big role.
“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 said in an interview with Sports Tak.
Shastri added that people in India give more importance to winning the big trophies. The former Indian all-rounder cited the example of winning Asia Cup twice in his tenure but not getting the recognition for it.
“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.
Meanwhile, Shastri feels there is just too much cricket all along the year as there are three formats of the game. Furthermore, players also ply their trade in T20 leagues across the globe.
“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.
India will face Australia in the third ODI at Chennai on Wednesday.
