Rahul Dravid’s Role In India’s Win And His Response On Receiving Praise

The legendary Indian batsman was India U-19 and India A team’s coach and played a vital role in preparing some of the young boys who played in the national team in Australia.

Dravid played a crucial role in India's win down under.

Ex-Pakistan captain, Inzamam Ul Haq recently said that the credit of India’s win in Australia should go to Virat, Ravi Shastri and Rahul Dravid. It didn’t come to anyone’s surprise that Inzamam mentioned Dravid. The current head of National Cricket Academy (NCA), Rahul Dravid was lauded by Inzamam, he said that he looked closely into India team’s victory and saw that players like Mohammed Siraj, Washington Sundar, Shubhman Gill, Shardul Thakur and Rishabh Pant played under the coaching of Dravid.

The former Pakistani skipper said that Dravid is a mentally strong person. He coached India U-19 in the 2016 and 2018 World Cup. Dravid took India to the 2016 Final whereas he won the 2018 World Cup with Prithvi Shaw as captain, who was also present in the winning Australia squad. Apart from being the U-19 coach, Dravid also coached the India A team, which in recent years has played a lot of matches.

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">lot of talk about the A set-up and rahul dravid&#39;s role...reminds me of this interview with him from 2018 just after the england tour, when he spoke of his thought process about working with the A team...<br>&quot;don&#39;t really focus on results at this level&quot; <a href="https://t.co/Ey4h6yVUSQ" rel='nofollow'>pic.twitter.com/Ey4h6yVUSQ</a></p>&mdash; Gaurav Kalra (@gauravkalra75) <a href="https://twitter.com/gauravkalra75/status/1352145920087961600?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw" rel='nofollow'>January 21, 2021</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

During the selection for such a series, Dravid’s word is taken as he knows the younger lot of players better than anyone. He has an experience of playing cricket in difficult terrains like England and Australia and perhaps, his own experience would have played a key role in guiding the young boys in the team and preparing them for the Australia series. As a spectator, it was first time in many years that the Indian batsman did not struggle in the final innings of the Test match.

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Class of 2016 Under 19. Rishabh Pant and Washington Sundar. Class of 2018 Under 19. Shubman Gill.</p>&mdash; Harsha Bhogle (@bhogleharsha) <a href="https://twitter.com/bhogleharsha/status/1351435061954920449?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw" rel='nofollow'>January 19, 2021</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

Former national selector Jatin Paranjpe also felt Dravid deserves the credit for India’s historic win in Australia. He explained the process in detail, he said that Dravid’s expertise come handy while picking a team for such high-profile Test series.

Dravid’s Response

While talking to a newspaper, Dravid said that the players deserved all the credit for the win and he is being unnecessary given credit. But that’s perhaps how our “jammy” has been, on and off the field, quietly doing his job without worrying about the accolades. “Ha, ha unnecessary credit, the boys deserve all the praise,” said Rahul Dravid.

Dravid is currently the head of National Cricket Academy (NCA) and his previous U-19 and India A jobs are taken by ex-India seamer Paras Mhambrey and Former Saurashtra captain Sitanshu Kotak respectively.