Rahul Dravid bowed out as India’s head coach with his greatest success, winning the 2024 T20 World Cup. It also marked the end of the T20I careers of captain Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli and Ravindra Jadeja, with the three players announcing their retirements during the celebratory scenes after the dramatic final against South Africa. Dravid has now opened up on what it was like working with Rohit Sharma, who was captain of the side in all three formats for a majority of the former’s time as India head coach.
“It was really good,” said Dravid on Ravichandran Ashwin’s Youtube channel. “Firstly, the thing with Rohit that I always felt was that he deeply cared about the team, and he was very clear about it. Right from the first day, he was very clear about how he wanted to run the team and what was important to him. And that’s really important in any relationship between a captain and a coach, especially the way I coach.”
‘It should be the captain’s team’
Dravid said that he was always clear that his role was to support Rohit as captain. “I always like to believe that it should be the captain’s team. I’ve been a player, and I’ve been a captain as well, but a captain has to lead in terms of the direction he wants to go in, and you have to support him and help him in that,” he said.
“Of course, you sometimes need to help a captain in terms of getting that clarity and understanding what is required. But with Rohit, I thought he was very clear about what he wanted from the team—how he wanted the environment to be, how he wanted the atmosphere to be, and how he wanted things to run. He had so much experience over the years, and that really helped. He was very clear on those things.”
Dravid said that more than anything else, he enjoyed getting to know Rohit as a person. “I’ve just really enjoyed getting to know Rohit as a person chatting with him not just about cricket, but about so many other things. It’s never been forced; it’s always been really nice,” he said.
Rohit and Kohli’s international future
The future of Rohit and Kohli with the Indian team has been a topic of intense speculation in recent months. Both players are now active only in the ODI format, having announced their retirements from Test cricket in the days leading up to India’s rather dramatic five-Test series in England. Rohit remains India captain in ODIs but both players haven’t played any cricket for the side since the final of the 2025 Champions Trophy on March 9. The last time they played any form of top level cricket was in the 2025 IPL, with Kohli’s RCB winning their first ever title.
