Former Indian chief selector MSK Prasad has backed former Indian skipper Rahul Dravid to take over as the national coach from Ravi Shastri.
Shastri’s tenure will get over the completion of the T20 World Cup and a lot of cricket experts believe Dravid will be the right man to take Indian cricket forward.
Prasad also wants MS Dhoni to take up the mentoring role for the Indian team. Dhoni will serve as the team’s mentor in the upcoming T20 World Cup but it is expected to be a one-off thing.
On the other hand, Rahul Dravid has done a magnificent job in churning out the young players and he has been instrumental in getting the best out of the players. Dravid did an incredible job at the Under-19 and India A level and continued his good work as a Director at the National Cricket Academy.
Dravid has all the experience under his belt whereas MS Dhoni, if he takes the job, will be another great addition to the team’s management. It is reported that bowling coach Bharat Arun, fielding coach R Sridhar’s contracts will not be renewed while Vikram Rathour will continue as the batting coach after the T20 World Cup.
“In my heart, I had this feeling. I was challenged recently by my colleagues that definitely post Ravi bhai’s era, MS has to come into the role of a mentor and Rahul Dravid as coach. These were the discussions I had with my fellow commentators while I was doing commentary during the IPL. I had a feeling that Rahul, being the studious person that he is, will add value to Team India post Ravi bhai’s era,” Prasad told Sports Tak.
Meanwhile, Rahul Dravid also served as the team’s coach on a recent tour of Sri Lanka. However, it has been anticipated that Dravid might continue as the Director at the National Cricket Academy and may not take the coveted role as the chief coach of the national team.
“Rahul as a coach, MS as mentor is going to be a boon for Indian cricket. Both are cool and calm customers and one person is very studious and hard-working. More importantly, the number of players that are evolving right now have been groomed by Rahul, who was India A coach also. So it is some wonderful planning that is happening. I will be very disappointed if Rahul is not going to be the coach and MS not a mentor post this management’s era,” Prasad added.
