From Shastri-Kohli to Dravid-Rohit, coach-captain camaraderie may very well be the unchanging theme of Indian cricket

The India captain then was being requested in regards to the significance of communication between gamers and coaches. Just as he had mentioned his bit, the pinnacle coach and former India captain chimed in. “I will answer that same question.” That was former head coach Ravi Shastri, sitting subsequent to Virat Kohli, at his first press convention after taking on from Anil Kumble in July 2017. It had been a time of acrimony contained in the dressing room and innuendo exterior. That night on the BCCI headquarters in Mumbai, Shastri was at his combative finest. He even ended up answering a number of questions addressed to Kohli.
The world has modified unrecognisably 4 years therefore. On Tuesday, one other former India participant and captain addressed their first press convention collectively. The new appointee – head coach Rahul Dravid and T20I skipper Rohit Sharma – sat subsequent to every identical to Shastri and Kohli. This time across the transition was seamless. There have been no bitter farewells or intriguing appointments. The questions on the media interactions weren’t loaded. And every answered their very own questions.

🎥 Head Coach Rahul Dravid rekindles his first assembly with a younger @ImRo45 & lauds the #GroupIndia T20I captain for his contribution in direction of the Indian cricket. 👏 ☺️#INDvNZ pic.twitter.com/croLaIElLu
— BCCI (@BCCI) November 16, 2021
Though, in direction of the top of the presser, after Rohit had given a considerably detailed reply to a different workload-related question, Dravid did chip in. “And just to add to Rohit, I mean it is not just us who are doing that. Kane Williamson (New Zealand skipper) is not going to be playing this T20 series… sirf hamari problem nahi hai, ye sab logon ki problem hai. [It is not our problem alone, everyone is having this problem].”
A second later, with an virtually embarrassed smile, Dravid made positive he eliminated the slightest conceivable trace of political incorrectness from his phrases. “Problem nahi hai, matlab challenge hai. (Not ‘problem’, I mean challenge).”
There was a delicate breeze, not winds, of change on the India nets too. The BCCI tweeted a video of the Indian staff’s apply session in Jaipur forward of the primary T20I towards New Zealand. Dravid was proven giving a throwdown to Rohit. Of course, some a part of Dravid’s foot was behind the crease. No stepping over the road, actual or perceived.

#GroupIndia get into the groove for the #INDvNZ T20I sequence. 👌 👌
How excited are you to see them in motion? 👏 👏 pic.twitter.com/Q3sNrdjnYA
— BCCI (@BCCI) November 16, 2021
More hands-on
One doesn’t recall Shastri giving throwdowns, though he would typically watch coaching classes like a hawk. That Dravid can be extra hands-on as coach might be a given, contemplating his comparatively current classic, and his work with the under-19s and India ‘A’. But he’s identified to take the fingers off the deal with at instances, particularly at first. For now, he mentioned his position could be to “sit back, watch and observe, and step in as and when required.”
“For me the players’ physical and mental health is the most important thing,” Dravid mentioned. “I will always be in conversation with them, I’d like to work with them to ensure that whenever we have them playing, we have them fresh, fully switched on. We need to recognise these are challenging times for people, for players, and especially for those guys who are expected to play all formats of the game.”
Dravid’s appointment might have come amid India’s failure to make the knockouts of an ICC event for the primary time in 9 years, the final occasion being 2012 World T20. But Dravid dominated out any drastic measures, reminiscent of fielding completely completely different groups for various codecs.
And there isn’t a apparent purpose for panic. The 2021 T20 World Cup has been a catastrophe, however in Test cricket, India have crushed Australia twice in Australia and had been 2-1 forward towards England on the uncompleted tour. Even within the shortest format, that they had one of the best win-loss file after Pakistan between the 2 World Cup cycles from 2016 to 2021.
What might be wanted is fine-tuning throughout the T20I facet by way of position readability and a few unshackling of minds that may present you up in crunch video games, significantly contemplating how hesitant India had been towards Pakistan and New Zealand within the UAE. And the brand new skipper promised that will occur, with one other T20 World Cup developing subsequent yr.
Assign particular roles
“We strictly want to assign the role that we want them to do here. It can take a while or it can happen in few games. For us to give them that confidence to perform their role is important,” Rohit mentioned.
“It is one of the important aspects of the format wherein people have the assurance of going and taking those chances in the middle,” Rohit mentioned. “If it comes off (it’s wonderful), if it doesn’t, then what occurs… that’s the place each of us might want to play an enormous position by way of giving a person that assurance of going out and expressing himself… generally you simply must go on the market and play fearlessly.
“We must set the template proper and we have now obtained a while to try this. India has been sensible on this format, it’s simply that we have now not received an ICC event.

“Of course, there are little holes that we need to fill up. That will be the biggest challenge we will have as a team. I am not going to say we are going to follow a certain team’s template. We have to follow and create our own template.”
One template already appears to be in place, whereby, just like the earlier mix, the captain and the coach seem like on amicable phrases, a minimum of to start with. Shastri and Kohli belong to fully completely different eras, however Rohit made his India debut beneath Dravid in 2007, so there’s loads of shared reminiscence there.
“We were talking about it yesterday on the bus,” Dravid mentioned. “Time flies, doesn’t it? I remember when we were playing a Challenger Trophy in Madras (Chennai), he had come just out of Under-19, young kid coming through, and we all knew Rohit was going to be special. You could see this was a very, very special talent. That I would so many years later be working with him, that I never envisaged.”
Things occur on a regular basis, some that we considered, some that we didn’t. And who higher than the previous head coach with the final phrase on these deep issues.
“These Ravi Shastris, Anil Kumbles will come and go,” Shastri had mentioned that July night 4 years in the past. “The fabric of Indian cricket will remain.” Onto the following pair then.