Former Indian pacer Ajit Agarkar has heaped praise on Rahul Dravid, stating the ex-Indian captain doesn’t need an audition to qualify as Team India’s head coach.
Ajit Agarkar Praises Rahul Dravid
Speaking on Sony Liv’s pre-match show, the former Team India all-rounder opined that the legendary cricketer doesn’t need to audition for India’s head coach position to take up the prestigious job. Though Agarkar backed Dravid for the head coach job, the former cricketer also highlighted Ravi Shastri’s contributions to the Indian national team as the head coach.
However, Ajit Agarkar reckons what Rahul Dravid has already achieved with the junior Indian teams and ‘A’ squads, he doesn’t need to audition for the full-time role.
“I think Rahul needs no audition,” Agarkar said ahead of the start of the 1st ODI between India and Sri Lanka on Sunday.
“Ravi Shastri has not been doing anything wrong except that loss in the World Test Championship (WTC) final. The Under-19 team has benefited, other coaches at the NCA and state associations have also helped him.”
Dravid famously guided the India U-19 team to the world title in 2018, a squad that saw captain Prithvi Shaw and Shubman Gill making a successful jump to the senior team later on.
Several players who are part of the Sri Lanka tour, have time and again praised Dravid and said they are eager to learn as much as they can from the legendary batter.
Another former India batter and coach of the women’s cricket team WV Raman is all but certain of Dravid becoming the men’s team head coach.
“I won’t want to talk about the time frame but Dravid taking over as full-time head coach is likely to happen, maybe sometime in the future. I can’t be indulging in crystal ball glazing and say when it will happen but it will happen whenever Dravid is ready. In fact, there has been a lot of talk going around for the last four-five years. It’ll happen when he feels he’s ready to take the travel,” Raman said.
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