Rahul Dravid's lasting impact sealed by Rohit Sharma's T20 World Cup triumph

Rahul Dravid was the captain when Rohit Sharma made his international debut as a fresh-faced 20-year-old, in a One-Day International in Ireland on 23 June 2007. It was in the fitness of things that, almost 17 years to the day later, skipper Rohit provided his head coach with the greatest gift of his post-playing career, in the latter’s final day in that capacity.

T20 World Cup 2024: News | Schedule | Results | Points Table

The Caribbean has been a mixed bag for Dravid. It was at the same Kensington Oval in Bridgetown that, in only his 12th Test in March 1997, Dravid was part of a crippling Test loss to West Indies. Chasing 120 in the fourth innings, India were upended by the pace trio of Curtly Ambrose, Franklyn Rose and Ian Bishop, shot out for 81; Dravid’s contribution was two.

More from First Cricket News

BCCI defends decision to play vs Pakistan in Asia Cup months after Pahalgam attack: 'If we boycott...' 'Indian players share compassion and feeling of majority Indian public': Ten Doeschate on IND vs PAK clash

Nine years later, as captain, Dravid uncorked two of his finest innings, 81 and 68, on the most diabolical of pitches at Sabina Park in Kingston to play the lead role in his team’s 49-run win in the final game of a four-match series, the 1-0 scoreline making him the first Indian skipper since Ajit Wadekar in 1971 to win a Test series in the West Indies.

Impact Shorts

More Shorts

'Won't require surgery...': Real reason behind Jasprit Bumrah's absence from 5th Test revealed in new report

PCB bans players from WCL over India-Pakistan match controversy

Twelve months later, again occupying the hot seat, Dravid struggled to hold back tears after his side’s first-round elimination in the 50-over World Cup following defeats to Bangladesh and Sri Lanka in Port of Spain. India had gone into the tournament as one of the favourites; so hard was the exit to digest that within months, in September 2007, he announced his resignation as captain.

On Saturday, Dravid’s undulating relationship with the Caribbean islands devolved into a delightful denouement after his charges, charged up, came roaring back from the point of no-return to stun South Africa by seven runs and wrap their hands around the T20 World Cup trophy. It ended an 11-year wait for a global title, a 13-year drought for World Cup success.

This victory didn’t come by accident. It was executed by 11 individuals on the park, but conceptualised and given shape by two of the shrewdest minds in Indian cricket, two kindred spirits who for all their seemingly different mindsets are more similar than most would imagine.

Rohit and Dravid were united as captain and head coach immediately after India’s abortive run at the 2021 T20 World Cup in the UAE under Virat Kohli and Ravi Shastri. It was a partnership of like minds; Dravid’s meticulousness and attention to detail are the stuff of folklore, but while Rohit places a great deal of onus on instinctiveness and intuition, he is also a big fan of data and the world of possibilities its analysis throws up.

Their desire to reshape the mindset of India’s limited-overs ecosystem was solidified after the semifinal loss in the 2022 T20 World Cup. Refusing to walk the fearless talk and lapsing into conservatism when it came to the crunch, India were playing a brand of white-ball cricket that was archaic, obsolete, unedifying.

Out went that approach after November 2022, to be replaced by intrepidness – in team selection, in the philosophy towards batting, in the constitution of the bowling group. Rohit could go about trusting the processes secure in the knowledge that not only did the head coach have his back, his talent-spotting and identifying mechanisms were steeped in logic and surety, not on a whim and a fancy.

The 2022 edition of the T20 World Cup was the perfect example of easier said than done; in the year and a half since, India have refused to buckle under pressure, real or imaginary, sticking to their aggressive guns, taking the occasional setback in their stride, committing fully to their theory of onwards and upwards. The perfect vindication of the leadership group’s diktat, followed gleefully and without question by a driven group, came at the 50-over World Cup when India were a veritable powerhouse, scything through the draw until the first hint of self-doubt and a smidgeon of negativity was ruthlessly punished in the final by Australia.

In many ways, that could have broken their resolve and spirit, even forced them to second-guess themselves and wonder if they were on the right track. Fortunately, Rohit and Dravid are made of sterner stuff; the skipper had taken it upon himself to set the tone for his team by shifting the onus away from individual milestones to team goals.

For a nation obsessed with individuals, it needed a tectonic shift in thinking for the players to buy into that concept; that they did so without question is a tribute to the communication skills of the brains’ trust, and the confidence they instilled in the players that sticking to larger plans came with the insurance of constancy in selection, of not just opportunity but the quality of that opportunity being bestowed on them.

Read | Bumrah and his unmatched talent help India snatch T20 World Cup victory

Dravid’s initial tenure ended in debilitating heartbreak in Ahmedabad in November until he was convinced to stay on once the BCCI’s overtures were turned down by VVS Laxman. Back in charge for a short while – by his own choice – Dravid had one final chance to sing the redemption song.

With Rohit as his trusted enforcer, with a bunch willing to leave everything out in the middle, with a support system that backed and encouraged and supported him to the hilt, Dravid drove his wards to the Promised Land, to the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow.

Typically, he has chosen to deflect all credit; he isn’t wrong when he says this is Rohit and his team’s success, but he has been an integral part of that team, his union with Rohit a textbook example of the benefits of togetherness of purpose and implicit trust in one another.

“He, more than any one of us, deserved that trophy,” a gracious Rohit said, adding a few million fans to his already burgeoning fan club. “What he has done for Indian cricket for the past 20-25 years… This was the only thing that was left (missing) in his cabinet. I am very happy, on behalf of the entire team, that we could actually do this for him. You saw how proud he was and how excited he was. Really grateful to the occasion for this to happen.”

With two teenaged cricket-playing boys to tend to – older son Samit was part of Karnataka’s Under-19 Cooch Behar Trophy-winning side, younger lad Anvay was the captain of the state Under-16 team last year – Dravid’s inputs will be more familial than widespread. But Indian cricket knows he is just one phone call away. How comforting that thought must be.