Dravid's two-year contract expired on Sunday, but no word on any extension yet
AHMEDABAD: You would be lucky to play in the final of the World Cup once. However, if you are destined to have been a part of two, in whatever capacity, you would be considered special. Rahul Dravid, who was the vice-captain of the Indian team that lost to Australia in the 2003 final, now has the honour of coaching India in another 50-over World Cup. One is not sure if he will continue in the role of coach, since his two-year contract ends as of November 20. Assuming that Sunday was his last day at work, he went about his job as if it was just another day at the office.
He and fielding coach T Dilip were among the first to walk into a buzzying ground around noon. Like he has always done right through the tournament, he walked straight to the pitch, touched it with his palms from one end, walked to the other end, bent down and touched it from there too. Skipper Rohit walked in, saw the pitch, and walked up to Dravid to have a chat. A brief conversation later, the two separated as Dravid took his usual spot behind the stumps on the practice pitches and watched his boys warmup one final time before the biggest match of their lives in front of the biggest home crowd.
Australia head coach Andrew McDonald and George Bailey had strolled to the pitch before and greeted Dravid. A cursory handshake later, Dravid walked up to Ashwin, who was warming up and said a few words. What were they discussing?
Ashwin walked up to the match strip, marked a few spots and that got the attention of Bailey and Marcus Stoinis, who was loading up to bowl a few deliveries. Was it a trojan horse? A team huddle ensued, shoulder to shoulder, real tight. Huddle over, another word between Dravid and Ashwin. A nod from the champion offie, a pat on the shoulder from the coach. Was he playing? Of course not. Toss. Aussies field. India play the same side.
1/10:World Cup Final: India vs Australia statistical highlights
Reuters
2/10:Australia
<p>Australia recorded their sixth World Cup win by beating India in the final of the 2023 edition. They have title wins in 1987, 1999, 2003, 2007 and 2015. </p>Reuters
3/10:India
<p>India became the third team whose only defeat in a World Cup edition coming in the final (10 wins) after New Zealand in 2015 (8 wins) and England in 1979 (4 wins). </p>Reuters
4/10:Travis Head
<p>Australia's Travis Head became the seventh batsman to score a hundred in a World Cup final and the second player to do so in a run-chase after Aravinda de Silva in 1996. </p>PTI
5/10:Man of the Match
<p>Travis Head became the fourth cricketer to be awarded Player of the Match in semifinal and final of a World Cup after Mohinder Amarnath in 1983, Aravinda de Silva in 1996 and Shane Warne in 1999. </p>Reuters
6/10:Elite club
<p>Travis Head's hundred was also the third by an Australian in a World Cup final after 140 not out by Ricky Ponting in 2003 and Adam Gilchrist's 149 four years later. </p>AP
7/10:Virat Kohli
<p>Virat Kohli's 765 runs is the most for any batter in the history of the World Cup. Kohli scored his runs at a stunning average of 95.62 and strike rate of 90.31 to hit three centuries and two fifties. </p>Reuters
8/10:Mohammed Shami
<p>With 24 wickets, Mohammed Shami finished as the highest wicket-taker in only seven matches despite missing the first four games of the league stage. </p>PTI
9/10:Josh Inglis
<p>Five dismissals by Josh Inglis is the most by a wicketkeeper in a World Cup final. </p>Reuters
10/10:Adam Zampa
<p>Adam Zampa became the second spinner to take 23 wickets in a World Cup edition after M Muralitharan in 2007. </p>Getty ImagesThose words were probably to comfort Ashwin, who has played in only one game, the first one against Australia in Chennai. If it was an act, it was a brilliant one, like the one he has been staging all through the last year, experimenting with the team, trying different players in different positions, like he has done in his IPL avatar in charge of first Rajasthan Royals and then Delhi Daredevils. Partly it was compulsion as some key players were injured. Partly it was because he wanted to create a back-up for the World Cup, just in case those players did not regain fitness. He was ready to risk defeats in bilaterals in the quest of building a core and building back-ups.
These are all his boys. Shubman Gill, Ishan Kishan, Shreyas Iyer, Mohammed Siraj. All of them have cut their teeth in international cricket under him as part of India ‘A’ or India Under-19 squads.
Dravid coached the India Under-19 team, led by Kishan with players like Rishabh Pant, Sarfaraz Khan, Washington Sundar and Avesh Khan in the side to the World Cup final in Dhaka in 2016 and ended up as second-best as India were beaten by the West Indies. “He is destined to not win anything significant,” was the chatter. He finally got his hands on some silverware two years later, when under Prithvi Shaw, the colts first won the World Cup in New Zealand.
Dravid’s sole aim was to create a robust feeder line of players through a strong India ‘A’ programme after taking charge of the development sides. As Under-19 coach, he also made a rule that a player can feature in only one under-19 World Cup after recognizing that age fraud was one of the biggest cancers plaguing Indian cricket. During a Times Shield function in 2019, he had said, “Age fraud is like match-fixing.”
1/10:ODI World Cup: Best Playing XI
Getty Images
2/10:Rohit Sharma (Captain and opener)
<p>Rohit Sharma gave blazing starts throughout the tournament for the middle order to flourish. He also leads this side as he has led India from the front taking India to the final, becoming the first Indian captain to score more than 500 runs in a single World Cup edition.</p>Getty Images
3/10:Rachin Ravindra
<p>Rachin Ravindra would be Rohit's batting partner up the order. With 578 runs from 10 matches that included 3 hundreds, Ravindra was one of the biggest reasons that the Kiwis reached the semifinals.</p>Getty Images
4/10:Virat Kohli
<p>Who else at the pivotal No. 3 spot but none other than the great Virat Kohli - the highest run scorer in this World Cup, the first batsman to notch up more than 700 runs in a single World Cup edition, the first batsman to score 50 ODI hundreds.</p>Getty Images
5/10:Daryl Mitchell
<p>Both Daryl Mitchell and Shreyas Iyer scored more than 500 runs with 2 hundreds in the 10 matches (before the final) but Mitchell scored more runs than Iyer who had the advantage of playing at home. </p>Getty Images
6/10:KL Rahul (wicket-keeper)
<p>KL Rahul's only hundred in the tournament came against the Netherlands but his unbeaten 97 was worth its weight in gold as it came against Australia when the team was staring at defeat. </p>Getty Images
7/10:Glenn Maxwell
<p>Glenn Maxwell notched up a 40-ball hundred against Netherlands in Delhi and then smashed the only double ton of the tournament - in Mumbai - when Afghanistan were about to register a huge upset against the five-time champions. </p>Getty Images
8/10:Ravindra Jadeja
<p>With his fine left-arm spin, handy batting abilities and brilliant fielding, Ravindra Jadeja is the No. 7 batter of the side. In the 11 matches, Jadeja took 16 wickets and 7 catches in the tournament.</p>Getty Images
9/10:Adam Zampa
<p>Adam Zampa took 23 wickets in the 11 matches Australia played and is at the second spot in the highest wicket-takers list in the tournament. Zampa's 3 four-wicket hauls ensured that the Aussies reached the final.</p>Getty Images
10/10:Jasprit Bumrah
<p>In India's 11 matches, Jasprit Bumrah took 20 wickets that included one four-wicket haul. Bumrah's early breakthroughs with the new ball or his strikes with the old ball reversing trigger batting collapses in the opposition ranks.</p>Getty ImagesA phlegmatic character who once told MS Dhoni in the Caribbean, “Let’s watch a movie,” a few days after India had lost to Sri Lanka and were almost out of the tournament and the country was baying for the skipper’s blood. Dhoni had got out for a first ball duck and reports emerged that miscreants had pelted stones at his home in Ranchi and had damaged the name plate. Dravid’s intention was to communicate the thought to the youngster that there will be life even after a soul-crushing defeat or a soul-stirring victory .
In that huddle, one is sure he would have said something similar to his boys.
