India vs New Zealand T20: How Rahul Dravid could be a turning point for Indian cricket?

Former cricketing legend Rahul Dravid has been announced as Team India's new head coach for all formats after taking over from Ravi Shastri. Dravid's first challenge will be a three-match T20I series against New Zealand in India. It will be a good way to judge what parts of the team he needs to concentrate on and which players he can rely on.

There is a lot of work to be done after India's early exit at the ICC T20 World Cup. So Dravid will have his work cut out but if anyone can it is definitely The Wall who can calmly take a step back and take the right action needed. He could be the right turning point that Indian cricket needs.

Grooming of the younger generation

Given Rahul Dravid's history of coaching the under-19 Indian team, he will definitely have an idea on which players could make a dent if selected for the senior team. It will be interesting to see how his strategy plays out because all the players that will be competing for a spot in the senior team would have been groomed by Dravid himself. Some of the young stars who have begun to shine like Shreyas Iyer, Rishabh Pant, Mohammed Siraj, Prithvi Shaw, and Mayank Agarwal have all played under Dravid's guidance and soon they will make their breakthrough to the senior team.

Could we be looking at split captaincy?

The concept of split captaincy has been debated in Indian cricket for a long time. Split captaincy would basically entail two captains for Team India, one for Tests and the other for the limited over game i.e. ODIs and T20Is. While Virat Kohli gave up T20I captaincy to concentrate on the longer formats, he is still the captain of the ODI side and Rohit Sharma leads the T20I side now. Currently, England, Australia and South Africa are some of the nations that employ split captaincy. While there is still no confirmation on whether Dravid will go for it, the idea is definitely something worth considering.

Time for an ICC trophy

India has not won an ICC trophy since 2013 and the Indian cricket fans are getting restless. It is a tough ask for Dravid, but when he comes in the pressure to win an ICC trophy will be very high, especially because there are two big ICC tournaments coming up. While of course winning bilateral series is important, winning these international ICC tournaments puts the team in a different standing. The Test World Cup would definitely be something he is eyeing because it was his speciality as a player.

Concentrating on developing all-rounders

While young talents are something that Dravid will definitely focus on, he will also be trying to bring up all-round talent. It is something India desperately needs with the current batch of all-rounders reaching the twilight of their careers. Adding all-rounders to the team not only brings strength to the lineup but also adds relief for bowlers, flexibility with the lineup and less worry about the number of specialists in the team. So we could see Dravid trying to raise the next batch of Yuvraj Singhs and Ravindra Jadeja as he coaches this young Team India squad.

Image: PTI