As many controversial talks were made on the Team selection process for the West Indies tour, Rahul Dravid opens up on making tough selection calls and confesses that it’s a tough and difficult decisions.
Dravid on Team Selection For WI Test
Rahul Dravid being the head coach of the Indian men’s cricket team for more than 20 months, had more misses in important matches, not qualifying for the Asia Cup finals 2022, losing to England on the 5th Test last year, being knocked out of the Semi-finals of the T20I World Cup and defeat in WTC finals.
But his career was more interesting and better than former head coach Ravi Shastri’s. The players like Arshdeep Singh, Shubman Gill, and Shreyas Iyer are brought up to where they stand now under Rahul Dravid’s coach.
He was up to his expectations as a fair man, player, and as a coach. He believes in giving a chance to every deserving candidate. But with coaching comes the responsibility of taking tough calls, which was sure a hard part of being a coach.
On the West Indies tour in 2023, the decision on bringing more Young players to the squad was one of the important ones to be noted. Senior players were excluded as well as they were either injured or sided out due to their lack of performance in recent days.
“You care for each of those people whom you coach, on a personal level as well and you’re trying to build personal connections. You want to coach them as people and not so much as cricket players. And when you do that, you want all of them to succeed.
But at the same time, you’ve got to be realistic and realise that not all of them are going to succeed. At times you’ve got to make those tough and difficult decisions,” Dravid said during an episode of ‘CRED Curious’.
He says after every announcement by the Indian Team for Playing Xl, some players and people gets disappointed. But that’s the job of a coach, to make hard decisions.
“Every time we pick a Playing XI, we disappoint people; there are others who are not playing. Every time we pick a 15 for a tournament, there are a lot of guys who feel they should be there. And you feel bad for them at an emotional level. But at least we all try.
I don’t say I am perfect at it. I’m not saying that I get it right all the time because it does affect you. That’s the hardest part of coaching or leading teams – having to make those tough decisions about people you truly want to succeed and do well. But you can only pick so many players, forced by the rule.”
Players dropped For the West Indies tour
On taking count of the players dropped for the West Indies tour, it shows the hardest part of making selection calls. Players like Cheteshwar Pujara, Ajinkye Rahane and Ishant Sharma are being dropped from last year’s team for the WI tour.
The Omission of Sarfaraz Khan from the West Indies Test Series also had many controversies from many former players like Sunil Gavaskar and Akash Chopra.
The Selection Committee is not even allowed to say the condition of Mohammed Shami, whether he is okay or still on injured. So, It will be tough to tell a player like Sarafaz Khan that they aren’t good enough to be in the squad despite his scores in the last three seasons in the Ranji trophy, but we can hope it was done in a sensitive manner.
“There is no easy answer to it. I think the thing that comes to me is at least you try to be honest about it. In your communication and dealings with players, if there is an honesty and if they can think that you are doing it without any political agenda or any bias in play, then that is the best you can hope for. That has to be a guiding principle,” mentioned Dravid during the interaction.
