A number one man dealing with unprecedented strain off the sector, a coach who needs to kickstart his good boy picture by taking off, and a flamboyant quick bowler prepared to fireplace up the assault towards a dog-led opposition prepared for powerful competitions. prepared for. dialog at residence. India’s tour of South Africa is ready to change into a platform for a wider narrative.
Even if Rahul Dravid trades his bat for a pair of boxing gloves, exhibits off a sloping moustache and grows lengthy sideburns, he nonetheless will not obtain the meanness or rudeness of a boxer. Or wrestle to slide into his favourite film character Gabbar Singh from Sholay, regardless of his perfectionism. Because, with the bat in addition to the phrases, there’s a deeply indelible picture of Dravid as candy and measured, dignified and gracious. Image of an excellent boy, as Dravid himself describes.
#teamindia ️ Had an intense web session at Supersport Park ️ within the construct as much as the primary #SAvIND testing.
right here is @28anand Taking you nearer to all of the actions of Centurion. I
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— BCCI (@BCCI) December 20, 2021
There have been occasions when he felt himself imprisoned on this picture. He tells Gaurav Kapoor in an episode of Breakfast With Champions, half-jokingly and half-seriously: “I’m trying to create the image that I’m not a good guy.” He stops abruptly earlier than making use of it to a tough, tough face, solely to peel off the masks. He laughs, in self-mock to say that anger doesn’t come naturally to him, and explains why he needs to burnish the picture of the nice boy who adorns the heads and hearts of a technology of cricket watchers. does. “If you’re labeled as a good guy who does everything right, when you make a mistake, it gets highlighted even more. ‘Oh, he threw his hat on!'”
The cap-fling incident, which occurred on the time, was in comparison with a heli comet’s imaginative and prescient, got here after Rajasthan Royals, the Indian Premier League crew he was teaching in 2014, a humminger towards Mumbai Indians. misplaced, shedding their play-off probability. “I want this image, that I am human,” says Dravid. This incident impressed the cult Indiranagar Ka Gunda commercial. The advert labored as a result of it was Dravid, as a result of he not often misplaced his cool on the sector, as a result of he not often received dragged into scandals, or just since you could not think about that he was on the sector or on the street. is getting misplaced.
Undoubtedly, in his worldwide profession spanning a decade and a half, Dravid has at occasions misplaced his cool, displayed his anger and dislike, argued and protested, maybe even aggravated and yelled at. Yet, when one thinks of Dravid, these photos hardly come out. Maybe, he simply needs the world to see him as nicely. He describes the cap incident as “not the proudest moment of my career”, and felt that “when the hat was coming off my hand it was awful.” The good boy picture is as pure as it’s nurtured.
Day 2️ In Training
the hustle continues
lets go#teamindia #SAvIND pic.twitter.com/vfgp9zCOau
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Yet, this disguise has hidden each its strengths and flaws. Like an impenetrable arsenal, it has obscured the true legacy of his captaincy simply because it has lined up his weaknesses. As an extension, it may well proceed to affect, if not instruction, how one charges his teaching, no matter his tenure.
didn’t give him the suitable
It was the reward and curse of his captaincy. His biggest achievements as captain – collection wins within the West Indies and England, the primary Test win in South Africa or Multan’s win as a stand-in – are sometimes attributed to the arrival of India’s quick bowlers. The credit score for Johannesburg’s victory goes to S Sreesanth; Zaheer Khan was made the perfect batsman by Trent Bridge, Virender Sehwag for Multan and Kingston by Dravid. Other achievements equivalent to a nine-match unbeaten streak in ODIs, India’s greatest at the moment, and 17 profitable run-chases at a time when India have been batting poorly, have been despatched as tutorial footnotes.
In distinction, their darkest time – India’s group stage exit from the 2007 World Cup – is taken into account the head of India’s turmoil as a complete beneath coach Greg Chappell. Like Sourav Ganguly or MS Dhoni or Virat Kohli, his captaincy is neither praised nor criticized by Sachin Tendulkar. Worse, he’s neither the perfect nor the worst within the dialogue on India’s captains.
Ganguly guided India to a brand new daybreak of victory at the hours of darkness days of the match-fixing scandal, making a mark of relentlessness, and nurturing a crop of children from Zaheer to Yuvraj Singh and Sehwag. Harbhajan Singh. Right after the Chappell-Ganguly cleaning soap opera ended, Dravid additionally took over the crew at a troublesome time, when apparently too many senior gamers have been dissatisfied, and wished to get the script he wished for the ultimate chapter of his profession. Were. , when the extra aggressive small city youth have been coming to the fore together with your face-to-face perspective.
A superb group of younger quick bowlers developed beneath Dravid’s management. Under him Zaheer made a comeback from the brink; Sreesanth, RP Singh and Irfan Pathan blossomed. And nice dhoni emerged from them. Sehwag as soon as recalled an incident that modified Dhoni’s profession. “When we have been in Pakistan and MS Dhoni was a newcomer, he performed a shot and was caught on level. Dravid was very indignant with MS Dhoni. ‘That’s the way you play? You ought to finish the sport.’ I personally was shocked by the English storm from Dravid, I did not perceive half of it,” Sehwag recalled within the Cricbuzz video.
“But when MS Dhoni got here to bat subsequent time, I noticed that he was not hitting many photographs. I went and requested him what was flawed. He mentioned that he doesn’t need Dravid to scold once more. “I will finish quietly and go back,” Sehwag mentioned.
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Dhoni and Yuvraj have been to play key roles in lots of India’s main objectives at the moment in addition to within the years to return. Add Gautam Gambhir and Suresh Raina to the group, and India’s 2011-World Cup profitable core was assembled throughout Dravid’s tenure. Riding the wave of youth and the expertise of veterans, he achieved a greater win proportion (53) in ODIs than each Ganguly (52) and Tendulkar (31). Under him, India experimented, performed aggressive cricket and, at the perfect of occasions, had actual enjoyable watching the crew, till all of it occurred within the Caribbean in 2007.
It was the nadir of Dravid’s captaincy, but he confirmed stern grace beneath strain. He stood behind his gamers, and took one thing out for a film to defuse the stress. “He came up to me and Mahendra Singh Dhoni and said, ‘Look, I know we are all upset, let’s go to a movie.’ We went to see the movie and then we had half an hour to talk to him. He said, ‘Yeah, we lost this World Cup, we wanted to make a difference, but that’s not the end of it; life is too big; we’re going to be tomorrow.’ Will be back,'” Pathan recalled to Star Sports.
examples of regret
But the lack of the World Cup will undoubtedly be a blot on his captaincy. Although Chappelle was portrayed as a villain, Dravid’s ineptitude, not often mentioned or dissected, additionally shines via. The crew had too many inconsistent notes, it was the fault of each the coach and the captain. Keeping Tendulkar at No 4 may have primarily been Chappell’s choice, however Dravid may have intervened and knowledgeable him about how the general public would see it if the transfer had backfired. Did it.
Being an Australian, Chappell would have been towards hero-worship, however Dravid might need helped him perceive Indian tradition higher.
Also, as Dravid has at all times mentioned in press conferences, it was he who shot. “At the end of the day, I take the call. Deciding whether to bat first or bowl first or who plays in the XI is ultimately my decision. It always starts and ends with me,” he as soon as instructed Johannesburg I defended his choice to bat first on a spicy wicket, versus the favored bowling-first knowledge in South Africa.
This was not the primary time that their choices after profitable the toss had been scrutinized. While the choice labored brilliantly in Johannesburg, his transfer to contain England in Mumbai in 2006 failed miserably, as India misplaced the match, spoiling the one centesimal Test of his profession. It was Dravid’s mistake within the press convention, nevertheless it was tactical naivety nonetheless.
There have been additionally cases when Dravid assumed that his strategies would work for his colleagues as nicely. Like when a batsman was combating for runs, he gave him a guide to learn, when a pat on the again or a chat of encouragement would have been sufficient. But Dravid’s reasoning, as he later defined, is “that’s how I grew up and played my cricket and there’s no reason others can’t deal with it.” He grew up in a metro within the higher center class, however there have been folks from Ranchi and Rae Bareli, Kochi and Bharuch who had totally different understanding of life and sports activities. Later, in his ultimate tour as captain, Dravid took his teammates to an opera, which left a few of them disillusioned.
During that tour, he emphasised on altering the cricket tradition of the nation. “Our cricket culture has to change to some extent. It is an athletic sport now and we have to instill these processes in our young cricketers. Our (national cricket) academy has to be run more professionally and we should manage our contracted players better,” he instructed The Times. Years later, the NCA turned a breeding floor for India’s most interesting subsequent technology gamers. Dravid was a visionary who not solely thought deeply in regards to the sport but in addition noticed how it will change. His five-bowler transfer did not win many believers, nevertheless it turned Kohli’s default mode.
By the top of the tour, the captaincy was the crown of the throne, though India gained a Test collection in England after 21 years. With the readability of thought that had lit up his batting, Dravid stepped down. “I enjoyed the captaincy, I liked it, but it can get tough after a while and some of the joy can go away,” Dravid instructed the BBC. “So I thought it was the right time to step aside.” The candor was commendable, although it isn’t clear what was nagging him.
Ended his roller-coaster captaincy experience quietly, with neither reward nor discrimination, each swept up within the guise of the nice boy, or shedding out on an enormous position as an exemplary batsman, who he performed for his nation. donated for
There was a streak of toughness on the again of the gown as nicely. The ruthless starvation for perfection, to blunt the fury of assaults, to win video games and make daring choices (like declaring six runs in need of a double century at Multan with Tendulkar). A trait that made her like Steve Waugh, whose ear she picked up throughout a dinner in 1998. “Rahul wanted that extra edge that would take his game to the next level,” Waugh mentioned later. Their relationship became a friendship, and Waugh later selected her to pen the foreword to his autobiography.
He will carry all these qualities that outline him – dignity of nature, devotion to sport, consistency of conduct and ruthlessness in choice making – in his coaching. Dravid may also take that a part of the good-boy picture.
It is troublesome to think about a extra unanimous alternative for a coach in cricket historical past, however that is additionally the place his picture will face a extreme check, the place he will likely be judged on collection wins and trophy rely.
Times have modified too – social media has an impatient and uncaring gaze, historical past is skeptical, 280 phrases that talk a thousand greater than aloud. The nation’s calls for have additionally modified – a Test win will not be sufficient, taking 100 or 5 wickets barely brightens their days, however India need to be unstoppable, at residence and overseas. Dravid won’t be able to reside on goodwill and fond reminiscences alone.
And as is the case together with his good-boy picture, when he makes a mistake, it will get highlighted much more. Maybe, in the long run, a training stint will free him from the notion-jail.
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With inputs from TheIndianEXPRESS
