Rahul Dravid should be given enough chances to rebuild the Indian team and Rohit Sharma should hit a refresh button after the World Test Championship (WTC 2023) loss to Australia recently, said former South African captain Graeme Smith.
Following India’s World Test Championship final loss to Australia, there has been much discussion about easing out India’s older batsmen, whose averages have been falling over the years. Smith believes that one game is insufficient information to determine world-class players.
He sympathizes with his former rival Rahul Dravid, who is now in charge of India, and advises that he be given time to “rebuild India.”
“When you get involved in a leadership role in Indian cricket, the expectation is something that you are going to have to come to terms with. There’s a huge quality of players. India can put two or three teams together. The biggest challenge in India for a leader is balancing those squads, balancing your tour schedules, the different formats, and those are some of the biggest decisions that are coming ahead of Rahul and his selection team.
What do those squads look like, how do they move those teams forward. He’s a quality man and a quality performer. He’s shown it right through as a coach. So, you’ve got to give him a fair opportunity now to kind of rebuild India,” Smith told Times of India from Cape Town.
Post India’s defeat to Australia in the World Test Championship final, there has been a lot of talk about easing out India’s senior batsmen, whose averages have been declining over the years.
Rohit Sharma Probably Needs To Just Refresh: Graeme Smith
Rohit Sharma has had a poor record ever since becoming the captain of the Indian Test team with his only century as captain coming against Australia in the Border-Gavaskar Trophy in February this year.
Smith feels that Rohit needs a break and hit refresh on his game and come back revitalized for the challenges.
“One of the biggest challenges of a captain is your own personal performance. The pressure of a leader never goes away. Rohit probably needs to just refresh. His own form hasn’t been probably at a level consistently. We look at the IPL over a number of years now and obviously the WTC final…he is having a bit of a rough patch and often that personal performance can just settle things down a little bit.
No one is criticizing his captaincy or leadership style. It’s just obviously on the personal performance side, if he can get some really good scores behind him, it takes a lot of that pressure away,” analyses Smith.
India will travel to West Indies for a series of 2 Tests, 3 ODIs and 5 T20I matches beginning July 12.