Why India will never win big under Rahul Dravid

Kolkata: In case you are wondering whether the headline is an emotional outburst post the WTC fiasco, the reality is more than 22 yards away from the perception. Great players rarely make great coaches and that is a pattern true for every sporting discipline.

But let’s stick to the point which in this case is well and truly Cricket, fresh from the temperate cauldron of London. Featuring amongst the most successful ‘international’ coaches would be folks like John Buchanan, Trevor Bayliss, Duncan Fletcher, Dave Whatmore, Mickey Arthur, Gary Kirsten and Ravi Shastri.

A few of them, including an extended listing, had barely competent playing records while some of them were clearly average first-class performers - Shastri and Kirsten were possibly the most successful in both avatars.

The truest insight for this pattern came from a spontaneous observation by Sachin Tendulkar about his not-so-successful captaincy record, the veracity I can vouch for while the source I have forgotten.

He suggested that being an exceptional talent himself, he assumed incorrectly that the game came as naturally to others as it did to him and that made him set unfair benchmarks for teammates. 

The coaching story is connected stoutly to this fact and let me try and simplify further.

To be a successful coach in any field, empathy is a necessary skill set, the ability to identify with diverse and unique journeys is key to success. More valuable than even masterful strategies or splinter-class analysis, as they must coincide with individual route maps with unreplicable challenges.

Those in contention for GOAT stature usually have faced no such problems as they were born with an accelerated learning curve, not simply a foundation of talent which needed Kaizen-level reinforcement. The difference between say Dravid and Shastri, as a point of reference.

When Ravi Shastri was flown in on SOS mode to New Zealand in 1981, he was primarily a spinner with a modest batting acumen, that too courtesy a solid defensive technique courtesy the Bombay Gharana schooling.

Those from my vintage will remember how resolutely the man worked on his game, combining the dual faculties of super-boring test match grafter and high-value ODI sixes hitter.

If ever a case study is necessary of an Indian Cricketer who has so successfully learnt on the job, Ravi Shastri would qualify effortlessly.

Unlike Rahul Dravid, whose debut innings of 95 at Lords in 1996 could easily be a replica of a high-class knock played ten years down the timeline, such were his ‘original’ God-gifted qualities.

Not quite a Sachin Tendulkar, but just a notch below genius grade would be the obituary verdict and this is primarily why he is a misfit as a coach, in spite of extremely sincere intent.

Folks like him across the world have never experienced the upgrade from average grades to distinction marks, as they were born in the upper stratas of empowerment and had to simply ensure that they did not take to drugs or rampant partying.

Ravi Shastri transitioned his maverick skills to coaching and that is why folks like Rishabh Pant were offered pole positions, no need to give the first-choice specialist Saha a second chance after Adelaide.

Dravid would painstakingly stick to the LIC clerk turned schoolboy batsman Srikar Bharat as per the academic process and not bet on Ishan Kishan, who could arguably be a transformation agent. 

Dropping Ashwin in England is the summer-time pastime of tour selectors and Jammy naturally did due diligence, as if a Joint Entrance test paper.

Our famous victory in Australia was a function clearly of the sowing of wild oats by our passionate youngsters, brought in as a default choice. Ravi Shastri would have recognised this connection and implemented the same by choice, especially in the bowling department bereft of innovation and disruption.

Dravid, the genius batsman, is clearly a poor coach simply because he has not had the necessity to partake in arduous journeys, by dint of a higher-order ability.

Much to my passionate regret, India will not win the ICC ODI World Cup on Dravid’s watch as he will approach it like an MBA examination, a winning thought as a batsman but a disastrous roadmap as a coach.

He will vouch for ‘experience’, not realising that those with multi-million dollar net worths may be high on fitness but diminishing daily on motivation, the magic potion for success.

Thus, he will bring back Rahul but discard the hungry Gaekwad, Jaiswal, Rinku Singh, Rahul Tewatia, Tilak Verma and significant others for whom this is a life-altering and not an incremental event.

Dravid, in this hotchpotch of data analysis, will seamlessly forget that our two greatest triumphs in ICC events ( no disrespect to 2011), 1983 and 2007, came from a French Foreign Legion resourcing reality and not Korn Ferry protocols.

Joginder Sharma, who dismissed Misbah Ul Haq in 2007 and Balwinder Sandhu, who knocked out Gordon Greenidge in 1983 did not enjoy lengthy tenures, like many team peers, and there is a lesson lurking out there. Dilip Vengsarkar hardly played in 1983 while Tendulkar, Dravid, Ganguly and Laxman stepped out of 2007. 

Winning outfits are made either by coldly repetitive DNA structures, which we are not or by a coming together of folks who have nothing to lose except their genuine self-respect.

As India will once again lose in the 2023 World Cup semi-finals, lovers of the game will be confronted by the bearded visages of Sharma and Kohli, while Dravid will be a solemn sagacious presence in the dressing room.

The incorrigible audacity of youth, very much in our pristine possession, will be locked up in IPL mode while superannuated seniors, fit in the body but far too content in mind, will occupy positions like entitled hawkers. As a nation, we will mourn for a few magnanimous moments, till we once again plunder the West Indies in a home series.

On this lofty note, the EPL and Champions League will prosper as Cricket falls prey to devious marketing and insufficient intellect. This does mean that the professorial Rahul Dravid, no fault of his, will preside over our downfall while a super-charged talent pool awaits IPL refuge. If that is destiny, so be it, but it’s simply not Cricket.