Men’s ODI WC: Captain is here to do the job with the team; need to support his vision, says Dravid

As a player and makeshift wicketkeeper-batter, Rahul Dravid had the distinction of playing for India in ODI World Cups, the last of which came as a captain in the 2007 edition, which ended up in an early exit.

Now, nearly 16 years later, Dravid is back with the Indian team in the run-up to an ODI World Cup, this time as the head coach of the Rohit Sharma-led side, where he stated that his role, along with other members in the support staff, is for supporting the skipper’s vision of achieving success in the campaign starting from Sunday against Australia.

“You recognise as a coach that once the game starts and guys cross the line, there’s so much only you can do. As coaches, we don’t score a single run or take a wicket in this whole tournament. All we can do is really support the players and most of the work with the team is in the days in lead-up to these games.”

“It’s in the practice sessions and to get people in that kind of mind space we can get them in, supporting the captain and team in whatever way we can and in the lead-up. But honestly once the game starts, it’s the captain’s team and they need to take it forward and execute it.”

"They are here to do the job and we need to support his vision. As a coach, I see my work in the lead-up to the games in the World Cup, building up the team and squad and then allow the players to really get express themselves and have a really good, fun tournament,” said Dravid in a press conference at MA Chidambaram Stadium on Friday.

When asked about change in his mindset as his roles have evolved in Indian team, Dravid said getting the players in a good space is his priority as a coach and that he’s moved on from his life as a professional cricketer, which also included playing league cricket in Chennai.

"It’s a long time ago since I was a player and almost forgot that I was myself a cricket player at some stage. I have moved on from that and I don’t think of myself as a player anymore. Maybe that’s the mind space difference and I am just focused on supporting and helping the group to do the best they can.”

“I mean, that’s the job of support staff and coach – to support the vision of the captain and help him execute it over the course of these couple of months and I hope we can do that really well.”

Dravid also backed Suryakumar Yadav to come good during the ODI World Cup, especially after the right-handed batter made 50 and 72 not out in India’s first two matches during the 2-1 series win over Australia last month.

“He’s always a very good player and that’s the nature in the country, right? Two good knocks and suddenly he has cracked it, but we know he brings a certain ability and talent he brings to both those white-ball formats.”

“It’s just a question of confidence that those two knocks would have given him and it’s good to see him working on certain things. We have been chatting with him a little bit about finding different ways to score runs. We know that his preferred route of scoring runs in the T20 format has been square of the wicket.

“But in one-day cricket, you have got to find other ways, other areas to access, and credit to him, he is working really hard and is developing those facets of the game too. The confidence he would have gained from those two games has been fantastic and if he’s called up to play any match, then we know that he’s in a really good space in terms of his skill,” he concluded.