Virat Kohli's childhood coach Rajkumar Sharma doesn't see Rahul Dravid's stint as Team India's coach as a successful one amid Men in Blue's inconsistent show and the latest is the jolt at the hands of Bangladesh in the first ODI on December 4.
Former India skipper Rahul Dravid succeeded Ravi Shastri to turn India's fortune to end a long-standing drought of an elusive ICC trophy. His appointment saw country's one of the greatest cricketers returning to the setup after honing the young guns. But things didn't yield much in India's favour which saw the Men in Blue's back-to-back fiasco in Asia Cup 2022 and just concluded T20 World Cup and also disappointing outing in Test cricket during away visits to South Africa and England.
Sharma though didn't term Dravid's stint as India coach a failure but didn't mince words to call it a not so successful one.
"I would not say that Rahul Dravid has failed as the team's head coach. However, some of the experiments and the thinking haven't been very successful," said Sharma on India News Sports channel.
"Unfortunately, for Dravid, a lot of his tactics haven't reaped dividends. While it is wrong to blame the coach, we have to admit that his stint hasn't been a very successful one, considering the unfavourable results," he added.
Rohit Sharma & Co. were left shattered by a one-wicket defeat in the first ODI of the three-match series against Bangladesh on Sunday in Dhaka. Now India face two must-win games to avoid facing an embarrassing series defeat.
Having failed to take the last wicket when Bangladesh needed more than 50 runs, Indian bowlers could not deliver but there is no denying the fact that a star-studded batting line-up needs to show more responsibility. The last time India played a bilateral series in Bangladesh was back in 2015 when under Mahendra Singh Dhoni, the team lost the three-match series 1-2 and the only win came in the dead third rubber.
India's final assignment of the year will see the Men in Blue face Bangladesh in a two-match Test series which is a vital one for the Rohit-led outfit's hopes of making the 2023 World Test Championship final with the team desperately needing two wins in two.
India will lock horns with Bangladesh in the second ODI on Wednesday (December 7) where they will look to mend up for the first match defeat.
India's probable XI: Rohit Sharma (c), Shikhar Dhawan, Virat Kohli, Shreyas Iyer, KL Rahul (wk), Washington Sundar, Shahbaz Ahmed/Axar Patel, Shardul Thakur, Deepak Chahar, Mohammed Siraj, Kuldeep Sen.
Bangladesh's probable XI: Litton Das (c), Anamul Haque, Najmul Hossain Shanto, Shakib Al Hasan, Mushfiqur Rahim (wk), Mahmudullah, Afif Hossain, Mehidy Hasan Miraz, Hasan Mahmud, Mustafizur Rahman, Ebadot Hossain.