Rahul Dravid Reflects on Coaching Journey with Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma

New Delhi: Rahul Dravid, the outgoing India men’s head coach, said he will miss the connections forged with veterans Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma in the national set-up. Dravid had said before the start of India’s T20 World Cup campaign that it would be his last tournament as the head coach.

The former Indian skipper got to sign off from his two-and-a-half-year coaching stint on a high as India won the T20 World Cup for the second time with a thrilling seven-run win over South Africa at the Kensington Oval on June 29.

“Someone like Virat (Kohli). Just a couple of series with him as a captain and just a couple of Test matches, but I was getting to know him as well, just to see how he goes about his business and the professionalism that he continues to display, his desire to improve and get better. It’s been fascinating for me to watch.”

“I have really enjoyed working with Rohit (Sharma). He is someone whom I knew as a young boy and I just to grow him as a person and grow as a leader in Indian cricket and what someone like him wanted to contribute to the team over the last 10-12 years, both as a player and now as a leader. It’s been a real tribute to him and the effort and time that he has put in.”

“I have really enjoyed seeing his commitment and care to the team just to try and get the environment right where everyone feels safe, enjoys themselves while it’s a very competitive and professional environment. It’s something I’ll miss, as well as some of his connections and with Rohit,” said Dravid in a video posted on bcci.tv.

Dravid also delved into why results are secondary to him in his coaching career. “As a coach at the end of the day my job is to help the captain deliver his vision, his philosophy of how he wants the team to play. I don’t really like talking more about results. Yes results are important. I am in a business that runs on results.”

“I think results are the factor of many things. When you are constantly rotating players and the kind of number of players you will have to play in spite of that the kind of results we got in these past months have given me more satisfaction,” he added.

Dravid further opened up on his coaching philosophy and why he is a firm believer in coaching being more about creating a safe environment instead of running after results. “I like to believe that coaching is not just about coaching cricket. This is about building connections with the people and creating right environment that allows for success.”

“I feel that I am a part of the team whose responsibility is to create the right professional, safe, secure environment that really doesn’t have fear of failure as such but its challenging enough to push people. That is always been my endeavour to try and create that atmosphere.”

“I am someone who likes continuity in life. I don’t like chopping and changing too many things because I think that creates a lot of instability and doesn’t create a very good environment. The vision of course is to win a cricket game. You try to win as much as you can. But I always look back to the fact that what is it that leads to the winning?”

“How do you win more games? What is the process required to win more games? For me the vision was to get that process right. Ticking all those boxes. How do you challenge the players enough? How do you practice enough, how do you well prepare tactically and technically?”

“Are we supporting the players in the right way? These are the things I wanted to tick before going on to the winning. Hopefully, if we would do most of these things, winning will take care of itself,” he concluded. IANS

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