“Rohit’s got to take a large credit..”- Rahul Dravid praises ex-India captain for changing Team India’s mindset about T20Is

Rohit and Dravid were at the helm when India won the T20 World Cup 2024.

Former India head coach Rahul Dravid has praised former India captain Rohit Sharma for transforming the Indian cricket team into an aggressive-hitting outfit, particularly in the T20I format. 

Dravid stated that the Indian team in the T20I format is so aggressive that other teams look at them and want to emulate the Men in Blue. Dravid described the current Team India squad in the shortest format of the game as "changing what T20 cricket is like."

“India is absolutely changing what T20 cricket is like. Indian batting in T20 cricket at the moment is off the charts. It’s close to 300 (runs per game), and everyone else in the world is now having to catch up. In the space of three or four years, you’re seeing that everyone’s looking at India and saying, ‘Shucks, man, we’ve got to match this.’" Dravid said on the Breakfast with Champions YouTube show.

Dravid largely credited Rohit Sharma, from his stint as the Indian T20 captain, for this evolution in the T20 mindset. He stated that he discussed the need for change in mindset in T20Is with Rohit Sharma, and the ex-captain took it upon himself to bring the change.

“Certainly, from the time I came in, a lot of the discussion with Rohit was around how we wanted to play a more aggressive brand of cricket, and we tried (to do just that). We started right from the beginning because we could see that that’s the way the game was evolving, and Rohit’s got to take a large credit for that, right? To move the team in a particular direction. Play the game in a lot more aggressive and a lot more positive manner. “I’m glad that India has sort of kept going in that direction to the point where India’s kind of lately,” Dravid said.

Dravid continued to praise Rohit Sharma for his huge role as a leader who inspired the rest of the team to change their mindset in T20Is.

“It has to be driven by the leaders, right? It has to be driven by the captain. It has to be driven by the players because they’ve got to do it, right? They’ve got to take the risks. You might be giving them a certain amount of security, but in the end, they are the ones who’ve got to take those chances, take those risks,” Dravid added.  

India won the T20 World Cup 2024 under Rohit Sharma’s captaincy, and it was the final assignment for Rahul Dravid as India’s head coach.