When he was in charge of the team, former India coach Rahul Dravid saw Rohit Sharma’s willingness to adapt as a big plus. He said that the captain’s message easily permeated the team, making his job easier.
Under Rohit’s captaincy, Dravid guided India to victory in the 2024 T20 World Cup in the Americas during his nearly three years as head coach. Gautam Gambhir then took over.
Rohit is well-liked by his teammates and renowned for his lighthearted banter, which helped him establish a solid relationship and made it simpler for him to express his ideas about how to strengthen the team.
At a function organised by the Karnataka State Cricket Association on Tuesday, PTI quoted the legendary Dravid as saying, “What was brilliant was that Rohit took the lead immediately. He took responsibility for setting the tempo himself, rather than asking others to do it. When your leader stands up and says, ‘I’m the one who will do that at the cost of sometimes my so-called average and the runs that I may score’, it’s a lot easier to pass that message through to the team.”
“I thought Rohit managed the transition into leadership really well. The team never felt that he had changed, and that is a rare and important quality in a leader. He showed the way,” Dravid added.
Dravid remarked that as soon as Rohit realized that Indian white-ball cricket needed to change, he assumed responsibility for taking the game ahead.
“I think the easy part in this thing was working with Rohit, someone who himself really had quite a dispute with him. He was also recognising that the game was changing. I think, you know, the nature of batsmanship in white-ball cricket over the last 10 years or so… everything had started to change. In some ways, there was a feeling that we were slightly behind and we needed to get better at that. We needed to push the envelope a little bit more.
“We needed to take a few more risks. Run rates were going up. All of these things were going up. So, it was then actually just very easy to have that conversation with him. I think, he was completely on board. He was someone who took the responsibility of setting the game forward,” said the batting great.
Dravid praised Rohit’s batting and stated the former captain skillfully adjusted to the demands of the modern game.
“He (Rohit) already had a phenomenal record. I mean, his performances in the 2019 World Cup were absolutely phenomenal. Five hundreds and, you know, playing at a certain tempo. But that tempo needed to change.”
According to Dravid, coaching is a dynamic process that requires coaches to be adaptable because what is important now could become out of date tomorrow.
“So, one thing to learn as a coach is that you should never coach like you did yourself. I think the deal’s changed a lot. You know, the late Mr. (Keki) Tarapore , who was a phenomenal coach, a phenomenal man. If I hit the ball in the air, he would make me run down the ground. He said, ‘you’ve got to keep the ball on the ground. Keep it to the bottom, lean, keep it straight’,” said Dravid.
Anil Kumble and Dravid are among the cricket greats that Tarapore is credited with coaching.
“You just imagine, if I were to be coached by him now… and to keep the ball to the ground and not to hit it in the air… that’s not going to work, right?; So, I think you’ve got to change with the times. You’ve got to realise what’s the need that we have,” Dravid concluded.
