When did Dravid take over?
Rahul Dravid took charge of the Indian men’s cricket team during the home series versus New Zealand in November 2021. His appointment also coincided with a change in the limited overs captaincy of the team. Rohit Sharma took over as ODI and T20 skipped after the 2021 WT20 and finally as test captain in Q1 2022.
How has the team performed overall? (All data sourced from ESPN Cricinfo)
India have been impressive over the past 12 months in the shorter formats. While a 73% win rate in T20I’s is excellent, the team did fail to reach the Asia Cup final. The story is different in Tests with only 2 wins in 5 matches. All losses came away during this time.
As of writing, India has qualified for the 2022 WT20 semifinal – two steps away from the an ICC trophy which has eluded the men’s team since 2013.
Team performance home and away
India struggled on the tour of South Africa – losing both the ODI and Test series comprehensively. While they have been quite successful against all other oppositions, T20I losses against Pakistan and Sri Lanka have come in pivotal matches during multination tournaments.
Team performance by opposition
How does Dravid compare against his predecessors?
Dravid was preceded by Ravi Shastri (4+ years in charge) under whom the team was a test power house – home and away. Before that Anil Kumble was in place for a year while Duncan Fletcher before him coached India for four years. In between the two, Shastri held charge for a year.
The schedule during Dravid’s first year has been weighed towards T20I due to the WT20 and Asia Cup tournaments taking place in 2022. Any comparison on peformance is not entirely fair due to differences in tenure, format focus, team evolution and home/away mix. Not to mention the evolution of opposing teams.
While Kumble had a similar tenure as Dravid had so far, he oversaw a test-focused home season.
However, I have compared them on the basis of win ratios across formats. Dravid has got off to a slow start in away tests despite inheriting a team that was an overseas winner under Shastri. India performed poorly away during Fletcher’s time as well, but this was in part due to weak bowling and a much vaunted batting order on the wane.
In shorter formats, the team did admirably under Shastri and continues performing well under Dravid.
Digging further, it makes sense to see how the team performed against the top ranked teams of the time i.e top 4 excluding India.
India have been a largely winning team throughout the past decade and the trend has continued under Dravid. India played a large share of its matches against top teams when Kumble was the coach, however most of these were at home. Conversely, Shastri oversaw nearly 60% of matches against top teams – and many of these were outside India.
Overall, Dravid compares the least favorably one year into the role when only matches against top teams are considered.
Overall, Dravid compares the least favorably one year into the role when only matches against top teams are considered.
What has been the telling aspect of the year?
A lot of players have found their way into playing 11’s as the focus has been on creating a large pool of players who can represent India. This has partly also been t by the team having to play multiple series’ at the same time.
Dravid has also worked with 6 captains since taking over- either due to injury, breaks or a packed schedule.
Dravid is also likely keeping an eye on the future as he rotates through numerous players (more on this below).
What might be next for Dravid the coach?
Hopefully, winning the the WT20 2022 will be the ideal way to cap of year one. But Dravid will have to oversee a major transition. Rohit Sharma, Pujara, Kohli, Ashwin, Karthik and Dhawan are all on the wrong side of 35 or approaching that age.
In T20I’s, the likes of Sharma, Ashwin and Karthik along with one of the incumbent fast bowlers can be phased out of the squad in the next 6 months since the next WT20 is in 2024.
The next ODI world cup is in India 2023 – so a major shake up should take place post that.
Changes to the tests squad maybe more a function of form rather than age. We have already seen Rahane and Pujara lose their spots. But the onus will be on Dravid, the management and selectors to identify able replacements.
Finally, Dravid will also look to get India back to winning ways in away tests – having lost all that he has presided over so far.