Gautam Gambhir feels the Indian cricket fraternity should have realistic expectations from Rahul Dravid.
Former India cricketer Gautam Gambhir believes the Indian cricket fraternity should have realistic expectations from newly-appointed head coach Rahul Dravid. He said the changes in the Indian cricket team will come with time and it's not right to expect things to happen after a couple of series.
Gambhir also spoke on Dravid's reaction to success and he feels the ex-India cricketer won't get carried away with the success. The cricketer-turned-politician has played with Dravid and understands him very well, hence he expects to see discipline in the Indian cricket team.
"One thing with Rahul Dravid is he will not get carried away with all the success," Gambhir said on Star Sports.
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"And probably there will not be a lot of big statements which will be made after success as well which is very important because sometimes, as a young group of players can get carried away with this kind of statements which we were used to in the last two years from the team management.
"Rahul will be very, very balanced. Now he has got Rohit Sharma who is itself a very balanced guy. I hope the combination brings a lot of success to Indian cricket," he added.
Dravid took over the Indian cricket team as head coach after Ravi Shastri's tenure came to an end with T20 World Cup 2021.
Gambhir pointed out that the Indian cricket team hasn't won an ICC tournament for a long time and there is a high expectation from Dravid. But one shouldn't push the expectations with the new duo of Dravid and Rohit Sharma in T20I cricket.
"Assurance, a lot of hard work, and a lot of discipline as well (things that Dravid brings to the table). At the same time, we need to be realistic with our expectations as well. Things will not change in one or two series. I know there will be a lot of expectations from Rahul Dravid and Rohit Sharma because we haven't achieved a lot of success in ICC tournaments.
"But yes, the assurance point of view, freedom and discipline point of view, which I think is very, very important, and the work ethic for anyone to grow and get better in international cricket.
"I think Dravid brings all of that to the table. The players will have to do it, the coach can only enable them. It's not that the coach is going to go there and achieve that success. He will give them a lot of assurance," he added.
(Quotes Inputs from Star Sports)