Rahul Dravid reveals lowest point of his stint as India's head coach

Rahul Dravid, who ended his tenure as India's head coach with the T20 World Cup 2024 trophy by his side, revealed his lowest point in it. It would be shocking to know that it is neither the World Test Championship 2023 final nor the white-ball World Cup finals in 2022 (T20) and 2023 (ODI). 

“If you ask me what is the lowest point, I would say the South Africa Test series early on in my career,” Dravid revealed in a chat with ESPNcricinfo. “We have never won a series in South Africa, as you know. It was a really big opportunity for us to win that series,” added the 51-year-old. 

Dravid took over from Ravi Shahstri as head coach in 2021. His first assignment was the tour of South Africa, which also turned out to be the last series with Virat Kohli as India's captain. India won the first Test in style by 113 runs. However, they let the Proteas team come back in the second and third Tests, always in the third innings, by poor batting performances. 

“Some of our senior players were not there. Rohit Sharma was injured [in the first game]. 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,” Dravid said, remembering his first assignment as the senior men’s team head coach. 

In the second game, Kohli was ruled out with an injury, which made things difficult. However, first with Dean Elgar and then with Keegan Petersen, Rassie van der Dussen played anchor roles in both the Johannesburg and Newlands Tests to get the Proteas team back in the lead, and India once again remained trophy-less on their South African sojourn in a Test series. 

“We could have set a decent score and won the game, but South Africa played well. They chased back-to-back in the fourth inning. So I would say that that was probably my lowest point in my coaching career of not being able to win that series despite being ahead,” lamented the former head coach. As a player too, Dravid, who featured in 164 Tests for India, couldn’t win a series in South Africa. 

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