Former India cricketer Reetinder Singh Sodhi reckons the national men’s team’s upcoming tour of South Africa will be a big challenge for recently appointed head coach Rahul Dravid. Sodhi believes Dravid’s job will only get more difficult during the forthcoming series because of the recent controversies in Indian cricket.
Dravid has taken over the head coach’s role at a time when Indian cricket is not short of contentious issues and potential rifts. A major one relates to Virat Kohli’s unceremonious axing as India’s ODI captain after he voluntarily gave up the T20I captaincy following the T20 World Cup.
With Kohli offering a contrasting back and forth behind the move to what BCCI president Sourav Ganguly stated, speculations are that there has been a genuine relationship decline between the Indian Test match skipper and the board.
Plus, there is a major threat of a dressing room feud between Kohli and his white-ball leadership successor Rohit Sharma. While Kohli assured in his customary pre-tour press conference that there is no issue between him and Rohit, the whole captaincy fiasco could lead to a division in the dressing room if the two senior men don’t handle the situation well.
Amidst all this is Dravid, whose man-management skills will be up for a big test as he has to not only ensure Kohli, Rohit and others are in good mental state but also performing to the best of their abilities so that the nation could achieve an unprecedented Test series win in South Africa.
“He has a bigger challenge because of the recent controversies that have happened, to uplift the team after that. It is an acid test for Rahul Dravid.
If we talk about Rohit and Virat, to make them stand together and get the partnership back if there is a difference of opinion between them, so Rahul will be addressing that first,”
said Sodhi in a discussion on India News.
India will play three Tests and three ODIs on their challenging tour of South Africa, starting December 26 in Centurion.
