 "Dravid salutes Rohit’s captaincy amid questions over Hitman's ODI future: 'He deeply cared about the team'")
Amid speculations that BCCI could force Rohit Sharma to retire from ODIs , Indian batting legend Rahul Dravid heaped praise on the ‘Hitman’ and his captaincy, describing him as someone who “deeply cared about the team”.
Rohit and Dravid had formed a successful captain-coach combination after Virat Kohli and Ravi Shastri from late 2021 to the summer of 2024. The pair had masterminded India's triumph at last year's T20 World Cup along with their runner-up finish in the 2023 ICC World Cup on home soil, with the Men in Blue also winning the 2023 Asia Cup during this period.
“It was really good. Firstly, the thing with Rohit that I always felt was that he deeply cared about the team, and he was very clear about it,” Dravid told spin legend Ravichandran Ashwin on his YouTube show ‘Kutti Stories with Ash’.
“Right from the first day, he was very clear about how he wanted to run the team and what was important to him. And that’s really important in any relationship between a captain and a coach, especially the way I coach.
“I always like to believe that it should be the captain’s team. I’ve been a player, and I’ve been a captain as well, but a captain has to lead in terms of the direction he wants to go in, and you have to support him and help him in that,” added Dravid, who captained India on a full-time basis from 2005 to 2007.
Rohit’s clarity and understanding made my job easier, says Dravid
Dravid, who joined Rajasthan Royals as their head coach after his stint with the Indian team concluded with the T20 World Cup in the US and the Caribbean last June, added that Rohit’s clarity regarding his role made his job as head coach much easier.
“Of course, you sometimes need to help a captain in terms of getting that clarity and understanding what is required. But with Rohit, I thought he was very clear about what he wanted from the team—how he wanted the environment to be, how he wanted the atmosphere to be, and how he wanted things to run.”
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More Shorts“He had so much experience over the years, and that really helped. He was very clear on those things,” Dravid added.
Rohit, who has retired from Twenty20 Internationals and Test cricket, would go on to lead the Men in Blue to victory in the Champions Trophy in March , helping India win back-to-back ICC events after reaching a third consecutive final.
The 38-year-old has expressed his desire to lead India in the 2027 ICC World Cup, although his age, along with young batting star Shubman Gill’s rise as captain, has put a question mark on that for now.
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