“Rohit Sharma showed the way” - Rahul Dravid credits Hitman for India’s T20 World Cup 2024 title win

Former Team India head coach Rahul Dravid has heaped praise on the former Indian skipper Rohit Sharma, who propelled India to the title win in the ICC T20 World Cup 2024 campaign, in Barbados.

Advertisment

Speaking exclusively at a function organised by the Karnataka State Cricket Association, Dravid asserted that Rohit made his job easier as he found Hitman’s openness to bring in a major positivity in the squad as the captain of the side.

For the unversed, Dravid served as India's head coach for nearly three years, guiding the Indian team to the 2024 T20 World Cup triumph under Rohit Sharma’s captaincy, after which Gautam Gambhir, the current coach, took over the position. 

"When your leader stands up and says, 'I'm the one who will do that at the cost of sometimes my so-called average and the runs that I may score', it's a lot easier to pass that message (to teammates). The fact that he led the whole thing, you know, made your (coach's) job that much easier," Dravid said at a function organised by the Karnataka State Cricket Association.

"He showed the way. I think the easy part in this thing was working with Rohit, someone who himself really had quite a dispute with him. He was also recognising that the game was changing,” he added.

"I think, you know, the nature of batsmanship in white-ball cricket over the last 10 years or so... everything had started to change. In some ways, there was a feeling that we were slightly behind and we needed to get better at that. We needed to push the envelope a little bit more,” he stated.

"We needed to take a few more risks. Run rates were going up. All of these things were going up. So, it was then actually just very easy to have that conversation with him. I think, he was completely on board. He was someone who took the responsibility of setting the game forward," said Dravid.

Advertisment

"He (Rohit) already had a phenomenal record. I mean, his performances in the 2019 World Cup were absolutely phenomenal. Five hundreds and, you know, playing at a certain tempo. But that tempo needed to change,” he concluded.

Stay updated with the latest cricket news, match insights, and exclusive updates at Sky247 India and download the Sky247 app to start betting today!