“To Be Honest, I Am Not…”: Rahul Dravid Regarding His Prospects As Head Coach of Team India

Even though his two-year contract with the Indian national team ended on Sunday, head coach Rahul Dravid needs time to think about his future after suffering a devastating World Cup final defeat. With this assignment, ‘Mr. Dependable’s contract with the BCCI has officially ended. India lost the World Cup final match against Australia by six wickets. Even though Dravid has led the team to two ICC tournament finals and one semi-final during his two-year tenure, the matter has not yet been discussed within the BCCI.

When asked about his outlook for the future and whether he is sticking to one style of game coaching, Dravid stayed evasive.

“I haven’t given it any thought. I just finished a game. I didn’t have time to consider this or to think back on it. Yes, I will when I have the opportunity to do so,” he stated at the media conference held after the game.

“At this moment, everything on my mind was this campaign, and I was focused on it. Furthermore, I haven’t given the future any more thought.” The 50-year-old added that he doesn’t think it’s necessary to evaluate his own two years in office.

“To be completely honest, I don’t judge and analyze myself. It gave me great pride to work with. Working with the players over the past two years in all formats has been an honor, in my opinion.”

Additionally, he refrained from expressing his interest in leading the team in the USA and the West Indies during the T20 World Cup the following year.

To be honest, I haven’t given it any thought. I believe that this match, this tournament, and our efforts up to this point have consumed all of our campaign’s energy. And I haven’t thought about it or made any plans, so I haven’t thought about what will happen in the future,” the former captain of India stated.

The coach laughed when asked if some of the greatest Indian cricket players of all time missed their chance to win a World Cup because it would be too late for them to participate in the four-year tournament in South Africa.

“I’m not considering who will be there and who won’t be there in 2027. Plenty of time is available for that. Before then, a lot of water will pass under the bridge. That will have plenty of time,” Dravid remarked.

Rohit was invested in this team

Declaring Rohit to be an amazing leader, Dravid mentioned how committed the captain was to this group and how he made an extra effort to spend time getting to know the boys in the locker room.

“He has been a superb leader. You know, Rohit has done a great job leading this team. He has given the boys a lot of his time and attention in the dressing room, so he has the upper hand.

“He has consistently made himself available for all of our meetings and conversations. There is occasionally a lot of strategy and planning involved. He’s been devoted to those things all along. He has invested a great deal of his own time and effort into this campaign,” he remarked.

Tough to see the disappointment in the dressing room

After the match, the Indian cricket players were shattered, and as a coach, it was difficult to witness the range of emotions.

He’s disappointed, as are a lot of the boys in the changing area. As a coach, it was difficult to witness because I am aware of the amount of effort, sacrifice, and hard work these guys have made.

So, it’s difficult. As a coach, it’s difficult to see that because you get to know these guys on a personal level.”

We were not defensive

“We had 80 runs in the opening powerplay as we played fearless cricket. We weren’t defensive; sometimes you have to rebuild an innings after losing a few wickets.

“They also did the same when Head and Labuschagne batted but they did not lose a wicket and kept going,” stated Dravid.

We fell short by 40 runs

India scored 240 runs less than par, but Pat Cummins’ squad smashed the target in 43 overs to win a record-tying sixth championship.

Virat Kohli (54 off 63) and K L Rahul (66 off 107) went into consolidation mode in the middle overs, where the hosts could only find the boundary twice, after losing three wickets for 81 runs.

Dravid thought they were a little short of the 290-track

“At first, with the sun on, it moved a little slowly. However, I felt it played well. It was most likely a wicket between 280 and 290. There were not 240. “Those forty extra runs should have been ours. That could have increased Australia’s pressure. Later on, I thought it played well as well. Thus, I considered it to be a fairly decent wicket. Looks can be a little misleading at times. Honestly, not all that many tricks.
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