Five reasons why Dravid should take up the India job

A few days back, we made the suggestion that BCCI president N Srinivasan should make Stephen Fleming an offer he can’t refuse. The former NZ skipper would great as India coach – but as great as he would be – perhaps Rahul Dravid would be even better (for starters, he won’t have the language problem either). Yesterday, Sunil Gavaskar suggested that India should dump Duncan Fletcher at the earliest and bring Rahul Dravid in to do the job – that is ff the BCCI can convince the Rajasthan Royals mentor to take over. Dravid has never ruled out coaching for India – he just wanted to wait things out and here are five reasons why the former India captain would make a superb coach for India: 1. Experience No matter where India go, Dravid has been before. He knows the conditions, he knows the grounds and most importantly, he knows the problems that Indian batsmen face. He scored runs in tough conditions (he averaged 53.03 abroad, higher than his career average) – that’s just the kind of batsman he was. That puts him in a privileged position as far as Indian cricketers go. There are few Indian cricketers who have travelled as much as Dravid (Sachin Tendulkar, Sourav Ganguly and VVS Laxman are the others who come to mind instantly) and of them, the Bangalorean seems best placed to help the Indian team out of the current predicament. He was also part of the team that under Sourav Ganguly and John Wright figured out how to win abroad after decades of frustration. He carried forward that spirit when he took over as captain himself. [caption id=“attachment_1428737” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  File picture of Rahul Dravid with Shane Watson and Ajinkya Rahane. BCCI[/caption] 2. Technical ability Dravid had a lot of natural ability but still on the talent scale, he himself agreed that he was lesser than say a Tendulkar. In the press conference to announce his retirement, he said: “I was nowhere near as talented as some of these kids at 23”. But he worked hard enough to make himself the wicket that the opposition wanted the most. For a while, his Test average was higher than that of Sachin Tendulkar and even his final average of 52.31 places him among the best the game has ever seen. Dravid started off as a technically solid batsmen – who at times found it difficult to rotate the strike. But his constant evolution through his career meant that he was a very different batsman at the end of his career. He has had to break down his technique for the different formats and make changes throughout. As coach, this ability to evolve will help him understand what the cricketers are going through. This is also the area where he would probably be better placed than Stephen Fleming or Sourav Ganguly. 3. Willing to get his hands dirty Even though he was a playing captain with the Rajasthan Royals last season, Dravid spent a lot of time nurturing the young cricketers and honestly, it was great to see one of the greats of the game willing to get his hands dirty. As a senior, he didn’t need to do it. But he went ahead and made it part of the team ethos. Not just him but even senior foreign players went out of their way to help youngsters. It was a process that began with Dravid. He set the tone, the others followed. As coach, one can expect him to do the same. His wife, Vijeta, called him a perfectionist and India can use some of that ability in the back room as well. He will be at the nets before the players, he’ll set things up for them and he’ll melt into the background – what more can one want from a coach? 4. Tactics Many might say that Dravid was a defensive batsman but he often used that defense to get India into a winning positions. As captain of the Rajasthan Royals, he was much more adventurous though. It was almost like Twenty20 cricket had broken the shackles that were holding him back. He often made changes in the batting order, surprised the opposition with bowling changes and wasn’t shy in promoting youngsters like Sanju Samson up the order. He spotted talent and he promoted it. It showed that Dravid wasn’t all talk – here was a man who knew how to get things done even if the resources at his disposal were fewer than that of the other teams. In the larger scheme of things, Dravid’s experience with RR is crucial. 5. Respect Dravid has always been the most admired cricketers in India. He was the guy who always seemed to do the right thing. He avoided controversy but he made sense when he chose to speak. His is a voice to be respected and he does not like to fail. He does not like to fall back on excuses. Even when the recent spot-fixing and match-fixing threatened to crush the Rajasthan Royals, it was Dravid who held the team together. He spoke from the heart – “I felt cheated by my team-mates” – and calmly put into words what we were all feeling. We believed him because he was Dravid. We need a coach who brings the same kind of calm and understanding to the team in tough times.