India had a disappointing campaign in the Asia Cup 2022, as the Men in Blue failed to make it to the final after suffering two defeats in the Super Four Stage against Pakistan and Sri Lanka.
Well, now the focus is on the home series against Australia and South Africa, and former India selector Saba Karim claimed that this will be crunch time for head coach Rahul Dravid, as he failed to live up to expectations with India’s team selection heavily criticized in the Asia Cup 2022.
He further stressed that Dravid is also aware that his honeymoon period is over and that he must now come up with a balanced side for the upcoming ICC T20 World Cup in 2022.
Saba Karim said on Sports 18’s show ‘Sports Over The Top’: “Well even Rahul Dravid is aware that the honeymoon period is over, and he is trying his best to be an alchemist but so far, such metals haven’t been converted into the core. One would expect him to do that. This is crunch time for Rahul Dravid.”
Recalling India’s Test match defeats in South Africa and England, the former wicketkeeper-batter said that the defeats reflected a scratchy start to Dravid’s tenure as India's head coach.
Karim further explained his point, “If given an option, Rahul Dravid would love to have those Test series wins in South Africa and the last Test match in England. He would love to swap that with so many bilateral wins that India has got under his belt.
But that’s the nature of the challenges which Rahul Dravid has to face. See Rahul is sensible and intelligent enough to understand that the only way he can define a successful tenure of his coaching career is if India – number one, wins ICC events and number two it starts to win Test series in SENA countries. I’m not talking about Test wins.”
He signed off by saying, “Test wins even while Rahul Dravid was playing, India has done that. But more importantly, when India starts to win in SENA countries, the Test series, that’s when Rahul Dravid will be very happy with team India’s performance.”
