Rahul Dravid: There were a lot of emotions in that dressing room, it was tough to see as a coach
Rahul Dravid provided a glimpse into the possible appearance of the Indian team’s dressing room after the team’s devastating loss in Sunday night’s World Cup final while Rohit Sharma was observed controlling his emotions; when he got off the field after the game and he did a good job of controlling them and Dravid said it was difficult for him to witness the players in such a state of mind.
Rahul Dravid provided a glimpse into the possible appearance of the Indian team’s dressing room after the team’s devastating loss in Sunday night’s World Cup final.
“There is disappointment in the dressing room, and there is disappointment among the boys and the support staff,”
the India head coach said about the mood in the dressing room after Australia recorded a surprisingly crushing one-sided win over the home team.
“There were a lot of emotions in that dressing room. It was tough to see as a coach,”
Dravid said after the match. Rohit Sharma was observed controlling his emotions; when he got off the field after the game and he did a good job of controlling them. However, Dravid said it was difficult for him to witness the players in such a state of mind.
“I know how hard these guys have worked, what they’ve put in, the sacrifices they’ve made. So, it’s tough. I mean, it’s tough to see that as a coach, because you get to know these boys personally. You get to see the effort they put in, the hard work that we’ve put in,” the India coach, visibly glum, said. “But that’s a sport. That happens. It can happen. And the better team won on the day. And I’m sure that the sun will come up tomorrow morning. We’ll learn from it. We’ll reflect. And we’ll move on, as will everyone else. But certainly, I think when the dust settles, we can reflect on what has been a really good campaign.”
One of the best aspects of his tenure has been his wonderful connection with the captain; Dravid was full of praise for captain Rohit’s leadership qualities and the attacking style of cricket he played in the tournament.
“He’s been an exceptional leader,”
Dravid declared.
“Rohit’s really led this team fantastically well. I think he’s certainly got the dressing room. I just think he’s given so much of his time and energy in the dressing room to the boys. He’s always been available for any of our conversations, or any of our meetings.
“Sometimes there’s been a lot of planning, a lot of strategy that goes in. He’s always committed to those things. He’s given a lot of his personal time, and energy into this campaign. And his batting as well, I thought it was fantastic, the way he set the tone for us. We knew that we wanted to play a certain way. We wanted to play a positive attacking brand of cricket. And he was very committed to doing that. And he wanted to lead by example. And I thought right through the tournament, he was quite superb in doing that. And yeah, I just can’t speak more highly of him as a person and as a leader.”
There is a belief that Dravid will quit and not stay in this position because he has been a very reluctant coach. There are also rumors of VVS Laxman taking charge. However, Dravid claimed he hasn’t had time to consider his future.
“I haven’t thought about it (about continuation). I’ve just come off a game. I have no time to think about this and no time to reflect on this. Yeah, I will when I get the time to do that. But at this point, I was completely focused on this campaign. It was focused on this World Cup, and there was nothing else on my mind. And I haven’t given any other thought to what happens in the future,”
the coach said, leaving the question open-ended.
Dravid also addressed the issue of India fumbling in the final hurdle of the ICC events and the perception of having fear of failure in the final.
“I won’t believe that we played with fear in this tournament. In this final match, we were on 80 runs in 10 overs. We were losing wickets. When you lose wickets, you have to change your strategy and tactics. We showed that in this tournament. When we lost against England, we played differently. You have to play. You start with front-foot cricket. And in this match, in the final, we didn’t play anything out of fear,”
the former India captain said at one point.
Dravid responded to a similar question by saying there couldn’t be a single explanation for India’s lack of an ICC title for 10 years.
“I guess if I knew the answer, I would say that. But no, I think, to be honest, I don’t know,”
he remarked. Under his guidance, India reached the 2022 T20 World Cup semifinal in Australia, lost the World Test Championship final in the UK, and is now ranked second in the World Cup.
“There’s not one particular reason you can pin it down to,”
he said.
“I didn’t feel at any stage going into this game that there were any nerves or the guys were intimidated by the game or they were concerned about the game. They were looking forward to it, and we were excited about the game. I thought there was energy and the mental space the boys were in leading into this particular game was spot-on, was terrific. Just on the day we probably didn’t execute, and Australia played better than us,” he strove hard to explain.