As India clinched the T20 World Cup yesterday, there are many moments which got captured and will be replayed in years to come. The one that stood out for me was that of Dravid pouring out all the emotions he had with the cup in hand. Only he will understand what the cup meant to him.
Life is full of ironies one must say. Almost 17 years back when the T20 concept wasn’t internationalised, it was in West Indies when Rahul Dravid was the captain of a very strong Indian unit at the 2007 ODI World Cup. The fact that India exited in the first round is a shocking event that most of us still remember. It led to lot of hard decisions and one of them being a totally new captain with a fresh team to lead India to a victorious campaign at the inaugural T20 World Cup later that year. Where was that held? In South Africa 🙂
Talking about Dravid though, when he was made the coach of the Indian team it was considered to be a very good step considering the record of Dravid at the junior level where he nurtured lot of young players to be ready for the bigger stage. But then there was a question if he was the right choice for being the coach in all three formats. Being a captain or a coach for Indian Cricket team is not easy. It comes with huge amount of pressure which only few people can do justice. And Dravid definitely was one of them!
So under him, India consolidated well in all 3 formats with a fine collaboration with captain Rohit Sharma built on mutual respect and trust but the irony was India finally crossed the hurdle in the T20 format with which we can associate Dravid (the player) the least.
However, a World Cup is a World Cup and it was very evident in Dravid’s celebrations. It was a fitting ode to one of the most selfless players India has ever seen.
P.S. Dravid has featured in only one T20 International for India and the fun fact is that he hit a hattrick of sixes in that match against England!
#indiancricketteam #meninblue #rahuldravid #rohitsharma #t20worldcup
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