When Rahul Dravid and Rohit Sharma sat side by side in their opening media interaction as head coach and T20I captain respectively in November 2021, there was due acknowledgement that they needed to set things right for the T20 World Cup that was a year down the line. With the tenures of Ravi Shastri and Virat Kohli coming to an end after bowing out at the group stage of the 2021 edition in the United Arab Emirates, Indian cricket was
When Rahul Dravid and Rohit Sharma sat side by side in their opening media interaction as head coach and T20I captain respectively in November 2021, there was due acknowledgement that they needed to set things right for the T20 World Cup that was a year down the line. With the tenures of Ravi Shastri and Virat Kohli coming to an end after bowing out at the group stage of the 2021 edition in the United Arab Emirates, Indian cricket was aiming to take a fresh guard.
While a Test series in South Africa and the final Test of the series in England were also important assignments in a jam-packed calendar, it must have been clear to Dravid, from the experience of his own playing career, that World Cups are what he will most likely be judged on. His contract is until the 2023 ODI World Cup on home soil.
Right from the time that he took over, though, he’s had to face challenges on multiple fronts with the injury to pace spearhead Jasprit Bumrah being just the latest setback. It all began with the Kohli captaincy saga – he was removed from the ODI captaincy against his will so that Sharma could lead in both the white-ball formats – just weeks into Dravid’s tenure as the differences between the star batter and the BCCI top brass played out in the open. Dravid is no stranger to these personality clashes in Indian cricket considering he became captain after the sordid Ganguly-Chappell episode, but it still wasn’t an ideal initiation to his job as coach.
It perhaps had a bearing on the results in South Africa. Against a South African unit, also undergoing a transition, a maiden series victory on its shores seemed there for the taking, especially after a 113-run win in the opening Test. But India squandered the opportunity as South Africa bounced back to clinch a 2-1 series victory. India also lost the ODI series 0-3. Kohli gave up the Test captaincy in the aftermath of the Test series.
If the upside was that Dravid and Sharma could work in tandem as coach and captain across all formats and forge a new identity, it hasn’t quite worked out that way. A combination of workload management, injuries and Covid-related absences has resulted in Sharma playing just 32 of 56 matches since Dravid's appointment. In his short tenure, Dravid has already seen eight different captains lead India – Sharma, Kohli, Bumrah, Rishabh Pant, Ajinkya Rahane, KL Rahul, Shikhar Dhawan and Hardik Pandya.
The 49-year-old spoke about the difficulty that it has brought. “It’s been challenging as well, we have got six captains in the last eight months, which actually wasn’t the plan when I started, but it’s the nature of the number of games we are playing,” he had said in June.
This was even before Sharma missed the deciding fifth Test against England in Birmingham due to Covid. He had also missed the series in South Africa in January due to a hamstring injury. Also missing from action in England was Rahul since he had to undergo a surgery for a sports hernia. Bumrah was thrust into the captaincy as a result. India dominated proceedings for the first three-and-a-half days, but the bowlers failed to defend 378 in the fourth innings and allowed England to level the series 2-2.
While the focus has been squarely on the T20 World Cup in the last couple of months, Dravid’s recent desire of seeing the best eleven on the park in every game hasn’t materialised either.
Ahead of the Asia Cup Super 4 game against Pakistan in August, Dravid told reporters: “There’s not going to be any workload management, unless of course it’s forced upon us. We’re looking to play every single game trying to win this tournament and do the best we can. We’ll have time after that to manage the workloads. From now on in leading into the World Cup, we want to be playing our best squad as and when possible.”
At the Asia Cup itself, an injury to Ravindra Jadeja ruled him out of the T20 World Cup while Deepak Hooda and Bumrah have suffered injuries more recently. Injuries aside, the frequent shuffling between Dinesh Karthik and Rishabh Pant for the wicketkeeper’s slot is an example of Dravid and the team management not helping their own cause.
All this amounts to a spate of uncertainty with less than three weeks to go for India’s World Cup opener against Pakistan at the Melbourne Cricket Ground. For the moment, Dravid can only hope that the adversities bring the team closer together in a format where unpredictability may not necessarily be a handicap.
Siraj replaces Bumrah for SA series
Pacer Mohammed Siraj has replaced the injured Jasprit Bumrah for the remaining two T20Is against South Africa in Guwahati and Indore on October 2 and 4 respectively. While there were reports on Thursday that Bumrah is out of the T20 World Cup due to a back injury, there has been no official word from the BCCI on the extent of the star pacer’s injury. Bumrah missed the opening T20I in Thiruvananthapuram on Wednesday after complaining of back pain during India’s practice session on Tuesday.
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