Former Indian cricketer and commentator, Sanjay Manjrekar, believes that a coach has a marginal role to play in a team's success, as the hopes of winning their first World Cup since 2011 are high on Team India’s current head coach, Rahul Dravid.
India has not won a World Cup since their historic triumph in the 2011 World Cup. However, ever since Dravid took charge of the Indian team, many have been hoping for the team’s success in the upcoming T20 World Cup 2022, but Manjrekar doesn't feel a coach has much to do with a team's success.
Manjrekar stated: “I still maintain the coach has a marginal role to play in a team's eventual achievements and performances. It's still the captain who calls the shots but the one thing you expect Rahul to do really well is team selection, picking the right XI.”
He continued: “My simplistic conclusion from what happened in the last four or five ICC events was the kind of playing XI that India picked, I thought they just overthought the whole process and somehow the playing XI didn't quite make sense and that went on to hurt India on occasions.”
However, Manjrekar is confident that Dravid will make some wise decisions to help India reach even greater heights in the game of cricket.
Former batter said, “I think he will be very good at that. He is one of the most intelligent cricketers that I have come across, Rahul has always been worldly-wise, a very intelligent person, so that aspect he will handle beautifully and that's why he was so good at the junior level as well. Handling young players is his greatest strength.”
He concluded, “Rahul will be doing his best with whatever he can control, which is mostly off the field, picking the right XI, maybe tactics during breaks, and in all that you can expect him to be at his best.”
(With Times Now Inputs)
