India’s Rahul Dravid, who was the former Indian coach, ended his tenure as head coach of India on a high note after they won by seven runs in a thrilling match over South Africa at the final of the T20 World Cup on June 29th.
According to Ravichandran Ashwin, India’s veteran off-spinner, he was touched when Dravid held the ICC T20 World Cup trophy and cried after taking the team to their first ICC title in 11 years as his last task in that position.
Ashwin said this on his YouTube channel. “My moment was when Virat Kohli called Rahul Dravid and gave the cup… I saw him hug the cup and cry. Rahul Dravid screamed and cried. I saw him enjoy it. I felt that a lot.”
Dravid, one of batting’s greats never won an ICC tournament during his playing days.
Shortly after winning their first ever T20 World Cup, it was announced that Gautam Gambhir would take over from Rahul Dravid as head coach.
Gambhir will begin his reign with an ODI series against Sri Lanka that starts on July 27th.
Even through all adversities and criticisms during both his playing days and coaching career Ashwin respected Dravid’s achievements including being bundled out early from the fifty-overs world cup held in 2007.
“I want to talk about a person who is sacred.” he began “2007, 50-over World Cup. India gets knocked out. Rahul Dravid, who was captain at that time.” He doesn’t get to captain again ODIs for India after that. But still he has been around within Team India. When something goes wrong or if Indian team does not do well like lost some match suddenly everybody come up asking what is dravid doing,” added Ashwin,
“Especially with these boys where i’ve seen him work for two three years. And i know how he has been balanced; I know what approach he has changed. I know every individual in his team. At home, he is thinking about these things,” Ashwin concluded.
The thrilling finale of the T20 World Cup 2024 saw India’s duo of Virat Kohli and Axar Patel put India within reach of their dreams with a competitive target. Kohli was outstanding with 76 runs while Patel was aggressive with an unbeaten innings of 47 that helped raise. India’s score to 176 for seven thus bringing them closer to lifting the trophy.
The Indian bowlers were tasked with defending this total but they kept their composure in a tight finish. Among the pacemen, Jasprit Bumrah, Hardik Pandya and Arshdeep Singh played a key role in winning this match. The death overs witnessed superbly parsimonious spells from Bumrah (2/18). Pivotal wickets by Pandya (3/20) as well as equally critical ones thanks to Arshdeep (2/20). This suffocated the opposition’s chase, ultimately leading to a narrow seven-run win for the ‘Men in Blue’, meaning they become champions of ICC WT20 for second time.
