Former India head coach Rahul Dravid who guided Rohit Sharma-led India to win the T20 World Cup 2024, revealed that his lowest point as a coach was India's tour of South Africa because he was just appointed as the head coach. Team India lost the T20 World Cup 2022, Asia Cup 2022, WTC Final and ODI World Cup 2023 under Dravid's guidance but the legendary batter got a great farewell as India won the T20 World Cup 2024 defeating South Africa in the final.
According to Dravid, India had a great chance to win the first-ever Test series in South Africa at that time, but despite going 1-0 up, India lost the next two matches.
“If you ask me what is the lowest point, I would say the South Africa Test series early on in my career. We won the first Test match in South Africa in Centurion, and then we were playing in the second and third Test match. We have never won a series in South Africa, as you know. It was a really big opportunity for us to win that series. Some of our senior players were not there. Rohit Sharma was injured, and we didn’t have some senior players in that series. But we were very close, and in both the Test matches—the second and the third test matches—in the third inning, we had a big opportunity. We could have set a decent score and won the game, but South Africa played well. They chased back in in the fourth inning. So I would say that that was probably my lowest point in my coaching of not being able to win that series in spite of being ahead" said Dravid on Starsports.
After Dravid's contract, BCCI have appointed Gautam Gambhir as new India head coach and the Men in Blue have won the Sri Lanka T20I series under his guidance and lost the ODI series 2-0. Team India will now be seen in action in the upcoming Test series against Bangladesh where India veteran speedster Mohammed Shami will make a comeback into cricket after ODI World Cup 2023 final.
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