In recent times, when it comes to performance around the world across formats, Indian cricket stands at the peak of the mountain. Whether it’s home or away, the Blue Brigade always comes up with incredible performances in three formats. Rahul Dravid, someone who knows the grassroots of Indian cricket better than anyone, highlighted the success.
In the last few years, India has strengthened their power in overseas Test matches, as they dominated England in the 2021 away series with a 2-1 lead in the first four games before the break of Covid-10 changed the equation and drew the five-match series. The only thing they weren’t getting for a long time was a World Cup, and under Rahul Dravid’s coaching, they also earned that pride.
Hardly any team has dominated in Australia in the longest format of the game, like the Indian team has done, winning two back-to-back red-ball series in the 2018-19 and 2020-21 summer. At home, there is hardly any contest for them, as they have been unbeaten in Test matches since 2011.
Rahul Dravid highlights the exposure of talent behind the success of Indian cricket
The former Indian head coach, Rahul Dravid, missed the first success when they lost the final of the Men’s ODI World Cup 2023 at home against Australia despite being unbeaten in the whole tournament. Seven months later, he held the nerve of the team for their famous victory over South Africa in one of their most vital games.
The veteran believes that their game has become extremely powerful in recent years, and the reason behind that has been the growing talent pool that now extends to all parts of the country.
“If you look at Indian cricket today, Indian cricket is extremely strong, it’s extremely powerful. One of the big reasons for that is that talent comes from everywhere, from all over the country.” The Karnataka batter was expressed during the 50-year celebration of the Mount Joy Cricket Club.
He mentioned that in those past times, the players used to come from the big cities such as Mumbai, Bengaluru, or Delhi, whereas in recent times, it has changed, and players have started to join the Indian team even from rural cities.
“If you go back to the time of, say, GR Vishwanath or even when I was starting, most of the talent came from the big cities or a few states.” Rahul Dravid highlighted. “Even if there were talented boys in smaller places, they had to come to the big cities to play cricket. But today, I think you see in Indian cricket that boys are coming from everywhere.”
The domestic cricket of India has become stronger, which has been another reason why the players, by the time they reach the national team, are already strong in their department.
“You just look at the standard of the Ranji Trophy. In the old days when you played in the South Zone, other than playing Hyderabad or Tamil Nadu, I think it is fair to say, without being disrespectful, that a lot of other teams you could take it not for granted but, you could certainly take it a little bit more lightly.” The Madhya Pradesh-born looked back.
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The 51-year-old revisited his old club for the requirement of that system to thrive, as he named BK Kumar and Nandan and how they used to share their knowledge.
“After the practice, HAL [Hindustan Aeronautics Limited] would give us two eggs and one small glass of milk. I wanted to sit and listen to the likes of BK Kumar or Nandan, talking about cricket. And it used to be great fun to listen to them, and learn so much from them.” Rahul Dravid concluded.