India head coach Rahul Dravid was reminded of the 2007 World Cup debacle 2 days ahead of the team’s opening match at the World cup 2023 against Australia in Chennai. However, Dravid, in his own cheeky style, deflected the attention to mission 2023, saying he is now a coach and that he has even forgotten that he was a cricket player.
Under Dravid captaincy, India suffered one of their lowest points in World Cup history as the team failed to go past the group stages in the 2007 edition in the West Indies. With defeats to Bangladesh and Sri Lanka, India exited the tournament early, leading to extreme crticism back home.
16 years later, Dravid will be overseeing India’s campaign at the World Cup at home, and Dravid has certainly moved on from the lows of the campaign in the West Indies.
“It is a long time since I was a player. I almost forgot that I was actually a cricket player at one stage to be very honest with you,” Dravid said in Chennai after confirming that Shubman Gill is doing better after missing Thursday’s training session due to illness.
“I have moved on from that. I don’t think of myself as a player anymore. Maybe that’s the mind-space difference… I am focused on helping the group to do the best they can.
“I mean in the end that’s the job of the support staff, the job of the coach really is to support the vision of the captain and help him execute his vision over the course of the next couple of months and hope we can do that really well,” he said.
Dravid has faced criticism in this innings as head coach of the most-followed cricket team in the world. The T20 World Cup exit in 2022 that came right after a flop show in the Asia Cup and the World Test Championship final defeat have all led to questions about his performances.
However, Dravid seems to have worked well with the selectors and the team to ensure India are well prepared for the big World Cup. India won the Asia Cup in a dominant fashion and doubts over the fitness of their mainstays have also ceased to exist.
Dravid said it’s now Rohit Sharma’s team and that he would be there to offer anything that is needed to help the team achieve its mission of winning the World Cup and ending their ICC title drought.
“A lot of our work, to be very honest with you, is in the days leading up to these games. It’s in the practice sessions, hopefully, the kind of mind space we get the people in and supporting the captain and the team in whatever way we can in the lead-up,” Dravid said.
“As a coach I see my work in the lead up to the games, in the lead up to this World Cup, trying to get the squad we got eventually. Building up the team, building up the squad and then hoping to allow the players to play and express themselves to have fun,
“Yeah… I mean I guess you recognise as a coach that once the game starts, once the guys cross the line, there is only so much you can do.
“As coaches, we don’t score a single run or take a single wicket in the tournament. All we can do is really support the players.”
