Legendary Indian batter Rahul Dravid joined the Indian cricket team as the head coach in November 2021 for a contract of 2 years. The former captain was touted to be the favorite to take up the job even before he applied for it. Rahul Dravid replaced Ravi Shastri, whose tenure as the head coach will come to an end after India’s exit from the T20 World Cup.
Dravid kickstarted his tenure as the head coach of the Indian side in a blockbuster way, with the Indian side winning all the 3-T20Is against New Zealand and is on the verge of winning the 2-match Test series as well.
While Dravid’s appointment sent waves of happiness over the Indian cricket fans, it needed the BCCI a lot of convincing to hire the legend.
Recently, while speaking to Boria Majumdar, BCCI president Sourav Ganguly revealed how Dravid wasn’t agreeing to take over the job and also revealed the reason behind it. He revealed:
“We had Rahul in mind for a long period of time, both me and Jay, but he wasn’t agreeing because of the time away from home [and] because doing a national team’s job is [about being] on the road for about 8-9 months in a year and he has two young children,”
He added:
“At one stage we gave up, he was appointed as the head of NCA (National Cricket Academy, Bengaluru) to look after it and take things forward. We had done all the interviews and everything, his interview and application, and he was appointed at the NCA. But even after he was appointed, we still kept insisting. Luckily he agreed and I don’t know what triggered the change in his mind but he agreed and I think this is the best BCCI could have done in terms of coaching once Ravi [Shastri] left.”
Before he took over as the head coach of the Indian side, Rahul Dravid was in charge of the national ‘A’ and U-19 set-up. Several cricketers including the likes of Rishabh Pant, Avesh Khan, Prithvi Shaw, Hanuma Vihari, and Shubman Gill have been groomed by him. In 2019, he took over as the head of the National Cricket Academy (NCA), which is located in Bengaluru.
Meanwhile, under his tenure, the Indian cricket team will is expected to play at least 3 ICC events – T20 World Cup 2022, World Test Championship, and 50-over World Cup. The Indian side has been struggling badly to win an ICC title and ending this drought will be one of the toughest challenges for Rahul Dravid.
