Former Indian skipper Rahul Dravid will be taking over as head coach with the home series against New Zealand with Ravi Shastri’s tenure ending with T20 World Cup. Shastri believes that Dravid has “inherited a great cricket team” and can provide even better results than he did during his long tenure. The 59-year-old also feels that Dravid does not need any sort of advice from him to take the team forward.
"A man of his stature, he has been very hands-on and done a lot of coaching with the India A team and the NCA. For him, it's an automatic switch. Just the right guy to replace me. I wish him all the luck and I don't think he needs any advice, he is far too experienced for that. He has a mind of his own and will get the job done. He has inherited a great cricket team," Shastri told India Today in an exclusive interview.
The former all-rounder was also asked about the difference between the personalities of the two to which he said, "The basics are still the same. The team is the same. He will probably do as good or even better job than me.”
During the interview he also emphasised on India’s performance in red-ball cricket and considered not winning the inaugural World Test Championship (WTC) as the biggest disappointment of his tenure. On the other hand, he termed India’s consecutive Test series wins Australia as the highs of his career.
“The highs, it has to be Australia, just cannot take that away. Back to back wins in Australia after almost 70 years is something that was unimaginable. Makes it extremely special. And of course, leading the series in England," he added.