Rahul Dravid, the Great wall of India, is now set to take over as national coach of Team India - replacing Ravi Shastri after the T20 World Cup.
Sources in the know of developments confirmed that Dravid has agreed after earlier hesitancy and the news of him agreeing to coach the national team has spread like wild fire. Everyone has agreed that Dravid agreeing to coach India is a great news as the way he has served the National Cricket Academy and the under-19 players after his retirement cannot be matched as he has given his heart and soul to the job - which paved way for many young Indian cricketers like Prithvi Shaw and Shubman Gill to flourish after they won the T20 World Cup in New Zealand 2018.
Dravid, who has played 164 Test matches (only second to Sachin Tendulkar), has scored more 13288 runs with 36 hundreds at an astonishing average of 52.3 and also played 344 ODIs for 10889 runs. He has a wealth of experience and India’s future seems to be in safe hands as his calmness off the field will work wonders for Virat Kohli’s men.
The Wall is back for India and as Michael Vaughan said in his tweet: “the rest of the world better beware”.
Few players have commanded as much respect has Rahul Dravid has in his cricketing career and after his retirement too, he has been doing a job selflessly at the NCA Academy as well as with Under-19 and India A teams.
I had the privilege to meet him during the finals of the IPL in Dubai on Friday and I dare say if cricket is a gentlemen’s game, Rahul Dravid is the ideal Brand Ambassador for it.
- Cricket enthusiast Anis Sajan is the vice-chairman of Danube Group
