Eight Indian batters were on show at Centurion and only two – KL Rahul in the first innings and Virat Kohli in the second – stood out. Half the others got out to bad shots and some continued to be in white-ball mode on a bowler-friendly wicket. What would have been going through Rahul Dravid’s mind as he watched some of his boys surrender their wickets?
Dravid, one of the greatest batters of his time, was all about application. He would grit it out and not give up his wicket at any cost. As coach, he just watched a team that was exactly the opposite of Dravid the batter. And that’s where things have started to go wrong for him and his support staff.
It is important that we bring Paras Mhambrey into the mix. Just about two years back, Team India could boast of fast-bowling depth. Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Shami, Umesh Yadav, Ishant Sharma, Mohammed Siraj and Shardul Thakur, not to forget T Natarajan in Australia. India’s fast-bowling depth set up several overseas victories of note. Now with no Shami in the mix, it all seems to have gone downhill. Shardul has lost the pluck he showed two years ago, and Prasidh Krishna was no match for the South African debutant, Nandre Burger. And that’s where India seemed to miss Bharat Arun.
Under Dravid and Mhambrey, India failed to defend 250 in South Africa in 2022, 380 in England in 2022, conceded 469 against Australia at The Oval in the WTC final and now 408 at Centurion, a first-innings bowling effort that had a telling impact on the match.
Jonny Bairstow tore into the Indian attack at Edgbaston in July 2022 and made a chase of 378 look easy in the fourth innings. Travis Head and Steve Smith took the game away on Day 1 itself at The Oval in the WTC final. At Centurion, Dean Elgar added to India’s wounds before Marco Jansen put the final nail in the coffin. Perhaps it’s time for Mhambrey to take a leaf out of Arun’s book and do what he did.
Sample this from Arun: “…at the end of a not-so-good day in office, we sat them down and watched the videos with them while asking them three questions. First, we asked them what they were trying to do and if the execution was right. It is sport and it can happen that you think something and yet you aren’t able to execute it. Second, we asked them if they thought their execution was right, but the batsman had a great day. And third, we checked if they were consistently trying to execute what they felt was the right ball to bowl and if they had the right field for what they were trying to do. By the end of the session, the bowlers knew what had gone wrong and were ready to get things right the next day.”
India, under Shastri and Arun, beat Australia on their home turf twice in three years. Yet, Shastri was more trolled than admired. It was almost fashionable to attack him. Shastri isn’t a reserved person, nor is he known to be politically correct. He is flamboyant and loves a glass or two of red wine. But what he did was good for the team. He pushed his way to get Arun in and handed Bumrah his Test cap.
Between the two of them, they shaped a bowling attack that was perhaps the best India has had. And even when Virat Kohli wasn’t there in 2021, Ravi and Bharat backed skipper Ajinkya Rahane to deliver India’s best-ever series win down under. Rahane is yet another who isn’t given credit for winning India that series. It wasn’t Kohli or Rohit but Rahane who won the hardest Test series down under. Yet, he isn’t revered as a leader.
Unlike Dravid, who is composed and reserved, Shastri polarised opinion. His statement, “This is the best travelling team”, made in the aftermath of the 2019 Australia series win wasn’t the most appropriate at the time. Australia were missing some of their key players. The timing wasn’t the best, and Shastri could have said things differently. He stoked controversy by comparing the 2018–19 series win in Australia with the 1983 or 2011 World Cup wins. However, those statements don’t define his legacy as coach.
Beating Australia away twice in three years does. For the record, India were leading the Test series in England 2-1 in 2021 when the last Test was postponed because of a Covid outbreak. That was the last Test series that India played overseas with Shastri as coach.
With two years now done since he took over, Dravid really doesn’t have much to show for his tenure when you compare it to Shastri’s. India lost to South Africa in South Africa in 2022, lost the one-off Test against England in June 2022, lost the WTC final in June 2023 and have now lost the first Test at Centurion. And let’s not forget the World Cup. Time is clearly running out for Dravid as head coach and Mhambrey as bowling coach. In comparison, the Shastri-Arun era, with Kohli and Rahane as leaders, produced some of India’s best-ever wins. Unless Rohit and Rahul can change the narrative at Newlands in Cape Town, it could well have a telling impact on the current team management’s tenure at the helm of Indian cricket.