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Rahul Dravid has shared how his dual role at Rajasthan Royals and advice from Kapil Dev inspired his successful coaching career with India.
Rahul Dravid coached the Indian team for three years (Picture credit: BCCI)
Former India head coach Rahul Dravid has revealed how a dual role at the Rajasthan Royals helped him decide that he could take up coaching at the end of his cricketing career, adding that a piece of advice from former Indian captain Kapil Dev played a part in his decision.
Dravid revealed that Kapil Dev asked him to try different things before taking a final call on his life post-retirement.
Dravid is rated one of the most successful coaches in the cricketing sphere. Under his coaching, India reached the 2023 World Cup and the 2023 World Test Championship finals and won the 2024 T20 World Cup.
“Kapil Dev gave me some advice. I was just finishing my career and I happened to bump into him somewhere and we were having a conversation. And Kapil paaji said, ‘Rahul, don’t decide on what you want to do straightaway,” Dravid said while speaking on Kutti Stories with Ash.
“As you get close to the end, you think, Oh, what next? What should I do? It’s natural just the way we are. We don’t want to be sitting at home; you want to be contributing and doing things,” Dravid said.
“And I was quite lucky because I was playing for Rajasthan then and at that time, Shane Warne left. In the second and third years of my career with the Rajasthan Royals, I was playing the role of a coach-captain,” Dravid added.
The former India coach explained how playing a dual role, in addition to his role at the auction and understanding the team’s finances, helped him decide on his future as a coach.
“Of course, I had support people around me. I involved Paddy in the system; Zubin was always around. Monty was there, I think, in those days. But a lot of it fell on you as a captain,” Dravid said.
The former India captain reiterated that his dual role at Rajasthan was a blessing in disguise for his future. Dravid said that he took two to three years before choosing to don the coaching hat.
“In a lot of ways, I was lucky that I got that opportunity at the back end of my career to get involved in a lot of these things. It sort of gave me an inkling for two months as to what coaching and working with young players was like,” Dravid said.
“For like, 2-3 years, I got to choose and did quite a few different things. I realised that till I was fit. Coaching is again something that you have to be fit for and it’s not something you can keep doing forever,” Dravid added.
The former India head coach is Rajasthan’s head coach in the Indian Premier League.
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