Rohit Sharma Ignores Gautam Gambhir, Credits Ex-Coach Rahul Dravid in Team India’s Recent Success

India's star batter Rohit Sharma, making his first public appearance since being stripped of the ODI captaincy, chose to highlight the influence of former coach Rahul Dravid while reflecting on India's recent

ICC triumphs - pointedly omitting any mention of current head coach Gautam Gambhir.

Speaking at the 27th CEAT Cricket Rating Awards in Mumbai on Tuesday, where he was honoured for leading India to the 2025 Champions Trophy title, Rohit looked back on the team's transformation over the past few years. He credited the turnaround to the foundation laid during Dravid's tenure.

"Look, I love that team, loved playing with them and it's a journey that we were all into, for many years. It's not about one year or two years of work. It was about getting into work from many years," Rohit said. "We'd come so close to winning that trophy many times, but we couldn't just get over the line. That is where everyone decided that we need to do something different and there's two (ways) to look at it. "

He added, "There's always a thought of doing that and then actually going and doing that. It cannot be done by one or two players. We needed everyone to buy into that thought, which was good from everyone. "

Rohit also offered insights into the team's mindset during the back-to-back ICC victories - the 2024 T20 World Cup and the 2025 Champions Trophy. "All the guys who took part in that competition (Champions Trophy) got into that thought process of how to win games and how to challenge ourselves and not be complacent and not to take anything for granted," he said.

The 38-year-old continued, "Those were the qualities that we tried to bring in and we thought it was a good method of just going and doing that repeatedly. Everyone enjoyed that process. Once we got over the line when we won the first game, we completely put that game aside and then started focusing on the next one. "

Though Dravid's tenure ended after the T20 World Cup win, Rohit acknowledged that the same philosophy carried into the Champions Trophy campaign under Gambhir.

Looking ahead, Rohit confirmed his readiness for the upcoming ODI series in Australia, saying, "I love playing against them. I love going to Australia. It's a very challenging country to play cricket. Hopefully we can go there and do what the Indian team is supposed to do and get the result in our favour. "