Former India captain and head coach Rahul Dravid was spotted playing cricket with the members of the ground staff of the National Cricket Academy in Bengaluru on Sunday, August 11.
Dravid recently ended his stint as the head coach of Team India following the Men in Blue T20 World Cup 2024 triumph by defeating South Africa in the final in Barbados in June. The 51-year-old was succeeded by his former India teammate Gautam Gambhir, who assumed his coaching duties in the recently concluded white-ball tour of Sri Lanka.
Since stepping down as head coach, Rahul Dravid has been attending various events, including the Paris Olympics, where he was the chief guest at India House, and the Tamil Nadu Premier League, where he presented the trophy to the winning team, Dindigul Dragons.
However, Dravid took time off and played cricket with the ground staff of NCA. In a video that went viral on social media, the legendary batter, dressed in blue jeans and a T-shirt, was seen bowling to one of the ground staff in a parking lot of the NCA building.
Rahul Dravid became the head coach of Team India after Ravi Shastri finished his stint following the Men in Blue's early exit from the T20 World Cup in 2021. Under the guidance of Dravid, India reached the semifinal of the 2022 T20 World Cup, 2023 ODI World Cup Final and also clinched the 2023 Asia Cup title.
However, Dravid managed to end his coaching stint on high with a T20 World Cup triumph. Apart from success at the international tournaments, Rahul Dravid played a crucial role in India's numerous bilateral series win. The most recent was the 4-1 Test series win against touring England team led by Ben Stokes.
Before becoming the head coach of Team India, Rahul Dravid had a coaching stint with India U-19 team and was also the head coach of the National Cricket Academy (NCA) in Bengaluru.
Rahul Dravid reveals his lowest point of his coaching stint with India
Rahul Dravid spoke about his lowest point of his coaching career with Team India. Speaking to Star Sports, the legendary batter stated that the 2021-22 Test series against South Africa was the challenging phase for him as India lost the series despite winning the opening Test.
"If you ask me what is the lowest point, I would say that 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." Dravid said.
"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." he added.
Team India took a 1-0 series lead after the winning first Test in Centurion but failed to win the next two matches. Following the Test series defeat against the Proteas, Virat Kohli decided to step down from the captaincy duties across all formats.
