Former selector Saba Karim has claimed that this will be crunch time for India coach Rahul Dravid and said that the former India captain is aware that his honeymoon period is over.
After a brilliant start to the Asia Cup campaign, India suffered back-to-back losses to Sri Lanka and Pakistan in the Super Fours stage and had to comeback empty-handed after not making the final.
“Well, even Rahul Dravid is aware that the honeymoon period is over, and he is trying his best to be an alchemist but so far, such metals haven’t been converted into core. One would expect him to do that. This is crunch time for Rahul Dravid,” said Karim.
Karim also went on to say that if given a chance, Dravid would have swapped the many bilateral series wins for the Test series win in South Africa and the last Test match in England.
“If given an option, Rahul Dravid would love to have those Test series wins in South Africa and the last Test match in England. He would love to swap that with so many bilateral wins that India has got under his belt. But that’s the nature of the challenges which Rahul Dravid has to face,” said Karim.
The former wicketkeeper said that Dravid will know that only way he can only make his coaching tenure a successful one if India starts winning ICC Events and Test series in SENA countries.
“See Rahul is sensible and intelligent enough to understand that the only way he can define a successful tenure of his coaching career is if India number one, wins ICC events and number two it starts to win Test series in SENA countries. I’m not talking about Test wins.”
“Test wins even while Rahul Dravid was playing, India has done that. But more importantly, when India starts to win in SENA countries, the Test series, that’s when Rahul Dravid will be very happy with team India’s performance,” said Karim.
