Former India head coach Rahul Dravid has recently spoken about the lowest point of his career as India’s head coach. Dravid pointed that the India’s 2021-22 tour of South Africa was the lowest point as India had a big opportunity to win its first Test series there.
India played a three-match Test series against the hosts South Africa in 2021-22. The Men in Blue won the first match at Centurion but went on to lose the next two Tests despite being in a dominant position.
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Rahul Dravid speaks about the lowest point of his career as India head coach
During a conversation with Star Sports, Rahul Dravid revealed the lowest point of his coaching stint with India. The legendary India batter recalled India’s 2021-22 tour of South Africa and claimed that India should have won its first series in South Africa after dominating the home team for so long.
“I think it’s a really good question. If you ask me what was the lowest point, I would say the South Africa Test series early on in my career. We won the first Test match in South Africa in Centurion and then we were playing the second and third Test match. We had never won a series in South Africa. That was a really big opportunity for us to win that series,” Dravid said.
Dravid also remembered that despite not having some senior players, India were not able to close out the game. He also hailed South Africa for the way they chased down the target in both the Tests.
“Some of out senior players were not there. Rohit Sharma was injured. We didn’t have some senior players in that series. But we were very close and in both the Test matches, the second and the third Test match, in the third innings, we were very close. We had a big opportunity. We could have set a decent score and won the game but South Africa played well. They chased back in fourth innings.”
“I would say that was probably my lowest point in my coaching thing of not being able to win that series inspite of being ahead. But there were lot of learnings from that. (There are) a lot of those experiences where we learnt a lot about our team. We learnt a lot about things that we need to do,” Dravid revealed.
The untold stories of ‘The Wall’ 👀
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— Star Sports (@StarSportsIndia) August 7, 2024
Rahul Dravid talks about the role of coaches in international sides
Dravid further added about the role of coaches and the need to understand the international game. He claimed that a team can’t always win and must know how to accept the defeats.
“So I think as coaches, what is very important is you will go through ups and downs but you have to maintain that balance to realize that you can’t always win games. Other teams have also come to play. You are playing against some world-class sides and you have no right to always win,” Dravid said.
“You have a right to prepare well. You have a right to your processes. You have a right to do the right preparation, pick the right teams, prepare your team well. But even inspite of that, some days you lose and you have to learn how to keep a balance and lifting your team and keep lifting the morale of your side,” the former India captain added.
India failed to win a Test series in South Africa
During the 2021-22 tour of South Africa, India won the first match at Centurion by 113 runs. It seemed like India would go on to clinch its first Test series in South Africa.
The Men in Blue lost their captain Virat Kohli for the second Test in Johannesburg due to back spasms but were in an excellent position in the second Test as they set South Africa a target of 240 runs in the second innings. However, the Proteas chased down the target with just 3 wickets down as Dean Elgar scored a gritty 96. KL Rahul led India in this Test match
In the third Test at Cape Town, Kohli was back but the story remained the same. India set a challenging target of 212 runs in the fourth innings. Much like the previous Test, South Africa chased down the target with 7 wickets remaining. Keegan Petersen smashed a brilliant 82 for South Africa while other batters also chipped in as South Africa won the series 2-1.