Former India head coach Rahul Dravid has contradicted the approach of his successor, Gautam Gambhir, stressing the importance of having superstars in the team. Unlike Gambhir, who has been hell-bent on eradicating “superstar culture” from Indian cricket, Dravid feels the sport needs “heroes” to inspire the next generation. While Gambhir’s approach is justified in its own way, Dravid-whose tenure as head coach ended after the triumphant 2024 T20 World Cup campaign – believes these icons are essential for the game’s growth.
“Any sport needs its heroes, and I don’t think people become heroes without performances. You can’t capture the imagination of a nation if you don’t deliver on the field, especially in India, where you get a lot of praise for what you do, but also a lot of brickbats. There’s a lot of scrutiny and constant focus on you. So to become a legend or a superstar in India means you’ve done a lot of things right, and in the process, you’ve also helped your team win,” Dravid said on Wisden’s ‘Scoop’ podcast.
Dravid also weighed in on India’s recent performance in Test cricket, which, under Gambhir, has been below-par. He suggested that the team is yet to recover from the retirements of stalwarts Virat Kohli, Rohit Sharma, and Ravichandran Ashwin.
“The passion to do well in red-ball cricket is definitely there. We’ve had a couple of series where we haven’t performed as well as an Indian team, and that can happen. We are also missing a few key players, with some of the big names having recently retired – Rohit, Virat and Ashwin – and it is not easy to replace players like that. But Indian cricket remains very strong. I still believe the Indian team will be competitive in every format it plays. It may take a little time, but hopefully this season we will be able to turn things around,” he added.
Dravid also pointed out that while Test cricket remains paramount to many upcoming players, some are unable to adapt to its rigours due to the sheer volume of cricket being played at the moment.
“Red-ball cricket is still very important. There are still players who want to play red-ball cricket. Among players, there is a strong sense that it is probably the toughest format of the game and something that brings a lot of personal satisfaction when you succeed in it. But there is also a lot of white-ball cricket being played, and we have to be realistic about that. Many of these players today are having to juggle multiple formats, and it is not always easy because they may not get as much time to prepare for red-ball cricket as my generation did. We effectively had fewer formats, and when I think about the preparation that went into some of the Test series I played, I feel the current players, not because they don’t want to, but because of the volume of cricket, are sometimes unable to find that same balance,” he said.
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