Former Team India head coach Rahul Dravid said that he did not want to change anything from the 2023 ODI World Cup to the 2024 T20 World Cup despite the former ending in heartbreak. Indeed, the Men in Blue had an amazing run in the ICC ODI World Cup 2023, winning ten consecutive matches and reaching the finals.
But they lost to Australia by six wickets in the final match of the tournament. Fast forward to India’s recent T20 ICC World Cup, where it again enjoyed an unbeaten streak before holding the trophy as well. While addressing the CEAT Cricket Rating Awards ceremony, Dravid stated:
“Honestly, I didn’t want to do anything different. I think we ran a fantastic campaign in the one-day World Cup, Rohit and the team, everyone involved in that one-day World Cup, we ran a superb campaign.”
”There’s nothing we could have done more in terms of our preparation, the planning, the execution of what we needed to do for 10 games in a row to dominate, to win the game we did, play the game we did.”
“I did not want to change anything. If you’d asked me and we had a discussion with our support staff, we’d get together with the coaches and say, what do you think we should do differently?” “The common consensus (among the team) was we need to do exactly what we did.”
”We need to create the same energy, create the same vibe, the same team atmosphere that we had and then just hope that on the day, we’ll have a little bit of luck,” he added.
In 2021’s final days, Dravid took his position as head coach of India and left it with the 2024 T20 World Cup in the bag. The ICC Trophy of 2013 was the last one that India won before clinching this T20 World Cup title.
“I’ve never participated in a World Cup as a player in India”- Rahul Dravid
During last year’s ODI tournament Rahul Dravid was feeling joyful for the opportunity to play at home ground in the World Cup because he never experienced such kind of joy during his playing days. They led other teams but stumbled in the finals where they floundered.
“To travel all over this country and to be able to experience that joy and passion of the fans. I’ve never been a part of a World Cup as a player in India, but just the experience as a coach to go from city to city and just walk and see what this game meant to the people of this country was phenomenal. It was incredible,” Dravid said at the CEAT Cricket Rating awards ceremony.
“I thought we ran a phenomenal campaign. We came unstuck in the final and Australia played better cricket than us on the day. They were a better team and congratulations (to them). That can happen in sport and that’s what sport is about,” he added.
At first batting, India made a below average score of 240 in the last match, which Australia chased down in 43 overs using six wickets. He participated in three one day international world cups as a player from 1999 to 2007 but he was not part of India’s winning team during the 2011 edition that was played at home.
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