Rahul Dravid recalls how Kapil Dev's advice helped him to choose coaching
Jul 18, 2020
New Delhi [India], July 18 : Former India skipper Rahul Dravid has recalled as to how Kapil Dev's advice helped him to choose the coaching job of India A and U-19 teams.
The former India batsman said that Dev gave him the advice during the latter part of his career and it held him in good stead.
"After I finished my playing career there were quite a few options and I wasn't necessarily sure what to do. It was Kapil Dev who gave me this advice actually when I was in coming to the end of my career. I bumped into him somewhere and he said: Rahul don't commit to doing anything straightaway, go out and spend a few years just exploring and doing different things and see what you really like," Dravid told India women's team coach WV Raman on the latter's YouTube channel.
"I thought it was good advice so I was also a little fortunate that at the back end o my career I was already in a sort of captain cum coach kind of role with Rajasthan Royals," he added.
During the interaction, Dravid also opened up about the insecurities he faced when he was dropped from the ODI team in 1998.
"There have been phases where I have felt insecure in my international career. I was dropped from the ODI side in 1998, I had to fight my way back in," Dravid said.
"There were certain insecurities as to whether I am good enough ODI player or not. I always wanted to be a Test player, I was coached to be a Test player, so you worry whether you had the skills to be able to do it in a 50-over match," he added.
Dravid is the only player in the history of cricket to be involved in two 300-plus ODI partnerships.
He played 164 Tests, 344 ODIs and one T20I for India. Dravid had announced his retirement from international cricket in March 2012.
He finished his career with 48 international centuries. He has also coached the Indian junior sides (India U-19 and India A) and he is now the head of the National Cricket Academy (NCA).
Dravid has also led the side during his playing days and under his leadership, the side had managed to register their first Test series win in England.
