Can Dravid extract the best out of the Men in Blue and bow out on a high?
Real test: The experienced Indian squad has its task cut out as it sets out to break a decade-long drought in ICC tournaments. | Photo Credit: X@IMRO45 It was in November 2021 that Rahul Dravid, then the newly appointed India head coach, stated that his side needed to focus on three “big events” — the 2022 T20 World Cup, the 2021-23 ICC World Test Championship, and the 2023 ODI Cricket World Cup. To claim an ICC trophy was paramount for Dravid and his men, having faced a drought since the exploits of M.S. Dhoni’s side in the 2013 Champions Trophy. So here we are, nearly three years later, approaching the end of Dravid’s reign. The three big events have come and gone, and India is yet to scale the highest peak. The 2024 ICC Men’s T20 World Cup presents Dravid the last chance to add that exclamation point to his coaching tenure. Much like Dravid, captain Rohit Sharma cannot escape a world event without repeatedly being reminded about India’s long empty cabinet. Rohit came closest to achieving the dream last year, disrupted only by a ruthless Australia in the final of the 2023 ODI CWC. Rohit also led the charge at the previous edition of the T20 mega event, where eventual champion England thumped India by 10 wickets in the semifinal. Rohit will have much of the same personnel from two years ago on duty here. Virat Kohli and Suryakumar Yadav, the highest and third highest tournament run scorers in 2022, come in hot again on the back of good performances in IPL 2024. The presence of Jasprit Bumrah, who missed the festivities in 2022 due to a back injury, makes the line-up far more potent. Bumrah’s yorkers and pinpoint accuracy can pull the team out of desperate times. The team management will do well to implore the players to learn from a grave mistake committed in the 2023 final. The batters were much too cautious at Ahmedabad — a mistake that can sound the death knell in modern-day T20 cricket. Attack, attack, attack, and live with the consequences — this is the only way to go. It would be no exaggeration to state that India has received a favourable draw. It faces no banana skin in Group A, with Pakistan being the only major threat. At least on paper, Ireland, USA, and Canada should be easy pickings. India’s progress to the Super 8s — reserved for the top two teams in each group — is virtually guaranteed. No World Cup is complete without a marquee India-Pakistan game. It is the Nassau County International Cricket Stadium in New York which will play host to this highly-anticipated game on June 9. Kohli’s majestic straight six off Haris Rauf at Melbourne is still fresh in the memory. The occasion demands another highlight for the ages. The bigger tests await in the Super 8s, which will be held in the West Indies. India, and Dravid in particular, will not carry good memories from the last time the Caribbean hosted a big event. Visuals from the 2007 World Cup shock group-stage exit, under the captaincy of Dravid, is best buried and forgotten. Thankfully, this group of players bear no scars from that horror. And thus another quest begins. Dravid, Rohit & Co. will be desperate not to return empty-handed.
