Rahul Dravid's 3 biggest struggles as Team India head coach so far
When Rahul Dravid took over as Team India’s head coach from Ravi Shastri after the T20 World Cup in the UAE last year, there were lofty hopes for him. The fact that he agreed to take up the big challenge itself was a big surprise. But once he came on board, he was expected to make a massive impact.
The early days were easy for Dravid as Team India registered regulation wins at home against New Zealand, West Indies, and Sri Lanka. However, the real test began after that and the picture emerging after a year of Dravid in charge is not too rosy. India lost the rescheduled Test in Birmingham from a position of strength.
Unfortunately, for the coach and India, the loss wasn’t a one-off. They struggled in the Asia Cup in the UAE and failed miserably in the semi-finals of the T20 World Cup in Australia. Fans were hoping for some respite in the ODI series in Bangladesh. However, to their horror, the Men in Blue have lost that rubber as well, that too with one game remaining.
Apart from skipper Rohit Sharma, coach Dravid has also come in for a lot of criticism over Team India’s lackluster performances. Amid the debate over what’s going wrong in Indian cricket, we analyze three factors behind Dravid’s struggles as a coach of the national team.
#1 Inability to put together a core team
This is the basic reason why Team India seem to be struggling rather badly in recent times. As head coach, Dravid has failed to identify a core group of players who can be backed and groomed. The Men in Blue were unsure of their combination heading into the T20 World Cup and paid a heavy price for the same.
There was no conviction in the team selection or the overall manner in which the team performed in the ICC event.
After a brilliant win over arch-rivals Pakistan in their tournament opener, they did well against the relatively weaker sides. But in the two other matches against the big teams, they proved to be an utter embarrassment. The South African pacers dismantled India’s batting in Perth, while England lorded over India in the semi-final contest in Adelaide.
nd #BANvIND ODI.💬 💬 "Rohit’s courage with the bat was phenomenal."
Head Coach Rahul Dravid lauds #TeamIndia captain @ImRo45 for his brave fight despite an injury in the 2⃣nd #BANvIND ODI. https://t.co/sZecPgpp6u
Right through the World Cup, Dravid and Rohit seemed unsure about their team combination. Keeper-batter Dinesh Karthik was backed for the initial games, only for Rishabh Pant to be brought up towards the end, even though he hadn’t been in any kind of form.
In the spin department, the decision to play Ravichandran Ashwin and Axar Patel over Yuzvendra Chahal also backfired big time.
When talking about the ongoing Bangladesh ODIs, Dravid has looked pretty much clueless about the happenings out in the middle as Team India succumbed to an embarrassing loss. The defeat is another outcome of the management’s inability to put together a core group of players.
#2 No evident roadmap
Rest, return, rest, repeat! This has been the story of Indian cricket over the last six months or so. Players, including the big names, have been rested literally for every second series. This happened frequently before the T20 World Cup and has continued since as well.
Digest this - Rohit, Virat Kohli, and KL Rahul were rested for the New Zealand tour immediately after the T20 World Cup. However, they were all named in the squad for the Bangladesh series.
Dravid himself was given a break for the Kiwi tour, with VVS Laxman stepping in as interim coach. By their actions, what the players and the coach are basically telling Indian fans is that a New Zealand tour is less significant in comparison to a Bangladesh tour.
A second-string ODI team lost to the Kiwis, while a so-called full-strength squad has now gone down against Bangladesh. In a nutshell, Indian cricket under the Rohit-Dravid regime has gone ahead with no evident roadmap in place.
It has become difficult to keep tabs on the number of players who have been given India debuts in the last few months. How many players have led the team across the three formats in recent times? Indian cricket right now seems like one big circus without a ringmaster.
#3 Too many injury issues hampering Dravid
To be fair to Dravid and the support staff, they haven’t been helped by the fact that Team India’s key players have been missing from action frequently due to injury and fitness issues.
All-rounder Ravindra Jadeja hasn’t played a match since the Asia Cup. Lead pacer Jasprit Bumrah was also ruled out of the T20 World Cup due to a back injury and remains on the sidelines.
Mohammed Shami played in the World Cup after recovering from COVID-19 but again finds himself out with a stiff shoulder. He was ruled out of the Bangladesh ODIs and is in doubt for the Test series as well.
It doesn’t end there. Rohit as well as pacers Kuldeep Sen and Deepak Chahar (yet again!) have been ruled out of the third ODI against Bangladesh due to various fitness issues.
We fought hard till the end, but it was Bangladesh who won the 2nd ODI by 5 runs and clinch the series 2-0.
Scorecard - bit.ly/BANvIND-2NDODI #BANvIND https://t.co/yjD9hu8m7I
Speaking at a press conference after India’s loss in the second ODI in Dhaka, Rohit opened up on India’s injury woes and admitted:
“There are few injury concerns, we need to get to the bottom of this. Need to try and monitor them, because it's important to understand this. When they come to play for India, they need to be at more than 100 percent. We need to monitor their workload because we can't have guys coming in to play for the country half-fit.”
It is important for Dravid and Rohit to sit with the NCA coaches and figure out why so many players are getting injured. No matter what strategies are put in place, India are not going to win too many games with semi-fit cricketers in their ranks.
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