Rahul Dravid was one of India’s greatest-ever cricketers. Perhaps the best No. 3 batter that we have seen. His resilience and his intensity stood out, and are learnings for every aspiring person wanting to play the game. But as coach, his record is modest. Except the 2024 T20 World Cup win, there is nothing much to write home about, and some of his decisions were questionable to say the least. Dropping R Ashwin in England for the 2023 World Test Championship final was one such. As an IPL coach/mentor, Dravid hasn’t tasted much success. And the question to ask is: why? In the context of what happened with the Rajasthan Royals, I am left wondering if Dravid’s intensity is something that goes against him. If he expects the same intensity from all his players, and if there is a gap between expectation and reality? Can everyone else be like him, and does he really expect more than he should from his players?
What worked for Rohit Sharma and Dravid during the T20 World Cup was that the captain led from the front, and it allowed some interesting calls to be taken. Getting Axar Patel to come up the order was one such. While the Rishabh Pant experiment at No. 3 wasn’t a success, Rohit’s efforts against Australia and England meant the focus was elsewhere. And when you win, everything else is forgotten. For Rajasthan, things were different. It was a poor season, and thereafter, the wheels started to come off.
Yashasvi Jaiswal, for example, could have been captain in Sanju Samson’s absence. The call was taken in favour of Riyan Parag. In a successful season, no one would complain. But when things don’t work, fingers will inevitably be pointed. Releasing Jos Butler was another call that has come back to haunt Rajasthan, not to forget the Samson issue.
There will not be another Dravid. To expect players to be as intense is perhaps counterproductive. The reason he was excellent as U-19 coach is because he was the alpha male in that change room. He could take calls, and young men wanting to make a mark would listen. The aura of Dravid worked well. For the senior team, it did not for the best part of his tenure. In fact, had Dravid not won the T20 World Cup as coach, his tenure would have been labelled a failure.
The IPL is anyways hard. With stakes at their highest and interference always part of the picture, things in the IPL are never easy for anyone. More so for someone as intense as Dravid. For him to deal with multiple stakeholders can’t be easy, and when things go south, it is almost impossible to get control back.
Will Dravid want to be back with some other franchise, or will he take some time off? While it is entirely his call, the truth is it is time for introspection. Is there a disconnect between him and the players? Have some calls been off the radar? Is his own intensity coming back to bite him? It is no longer Dravid with his bat on the 22-yard strip. There, he was alone. And could bat for hours, and score hundreds. As coach, things are different. And not always easy.
For all sports updates, follow RevSportz