A year on from guiding India to a memorable win at the 2024 T20 World Cup in the Americas, former head coach Rahul Dravid has credited the team’s batting revolution to Rohit Sharma and claimed that other
teams are now trying to emulate the current title holders.
Late into his career, Rohit overhauled his batting approach, switching to ultra-aggressiveness to give India early momentum. The intent paid rich dividends as India went on to win their second ever ICC World T20 title and that too while remaining.
Dravid, who was the head coach when Rohit signed off from T20Is with a world title, said he held discussions with the former captain on the way forward and the result was the positive intent that has become synonymous with India’s batting in the shortest format.
“I can’t speak for what happened before me and it’s not for me to say that but certainly from the time I came in a lot of the discussion with Rohit was around that we wanted to play a more aggressive brand of cricket,” Dravid said on Breakfast with Champions.
“We (Rohit and I) started right from the beginning, because we could see that that’s the way the game was evolving. And Rohit’s got to take a large credit for that, to move the team in a particular direction. Play the game in a lot more aggressive and a lot more positive manner,” he added.
Dravid feels India have set the T20I batting template and the world is now playing the catch-up.
“I’m glad that we sort of kept going in that direction to the point where I think India’s kind of literally, absolutely, I think changing what T20 cricket is like. I think Indian batting in T20 cricket at the moment is off the charts. I mean, it’s close to 300. And everyone else in the world is now having to catch up. I think in a space of three or four years you’re seeing that everyone’s looking at India and saying, ‘Shucks man, we’ve got to match this.’ I mean, I wouldn’t say like (match) me. I would say (matching) these players,” Dravid said.
The ever-humble Dravid eventually took some credit for India’s positive approach before adding that it’s the players who ultimately are responsible for the correct execution.
“They are the players who do that. I mean, I’m not saying that I shouldn’t get any credit, but it has to be driven by the leaders. It has to be driven by the captain. It has to be driven by the players, because they’ve got to do it. They’ve got to take risks. You might be giving them a certain amount of security, but in the end, they’re the ones who’ve got to take those chances, take those risks,” he said.
