Dravid as coach? Surely yes. But now? May be not.

March 9^th, 2014 marked the day when Dravid completed 2 years as a former India cricketer. Soon after, Gavaskar came out openly and suggested Dravid should replace Fletcher immediately as the next India coach. Wow, that was unexpected from Sunny. It is in fact good for Indian cricket that we now seem to have an outspoken Gavaskar. Barring a few like Bedi, most former Indian cricketers and commentators are very reserved and diplomatic about their views on Indian cricket.

Is Gavaskar right? He is definitely right when he says Fletcher should be replaced. More than anything, it is India’s test record under Fletcher that is most concerning. In the 15 away tests Fletcher has been in charge, India has won just one of them and lost 10.  Yes, it is a team in transition. Yes, the bowling options are limited.  But, you are not made the head coach of the number one team for nothing. There are challenges and there are expectations. It can be safely said that expectations haven’t been met. As many suggest, Fletcher is a technician and an expert in fixing flaws of batsmen. But, I don’t think there are any Indian batsmen who have greatly improved under him. For example, Rohit Sharma is still not tight in his defense and Raina continues to have it difficult against the short ball.

Now, to the more interesting and debatable part of Sunny’s comment. Should Dravid succeed Fletcher? At least, twitter was abuzz with a lot of positive reaction. Even a few former cricketers like Farokh Engineer felt Dravid would make a good coach.

If you look at successful India coaches of the past, John Wright and Gary Kirsten are the names that immediately come to mind. And if you look around for current coaches in International cricket who are doing well, Darren Lehmann easily tops the list. In the shorter form of cricket like the IPL, Stephen Fleming is comfortably the most successful coach. What’s common with all these guys? All former cricketers, all of them had fairly successful playing careers, all of them are respected and all of them have a pretty astute cricketing brain. Dravid easily ticks all these boxes. On a side note, I do think Dravid is one of the most underrated Indian captains. He was a good tactician and led to key test wins abroad, but events like 2007 World Cup dented his reputation.

What about coaching experience? Coaches like Flower, Kirsten and Lehmann weren’t part of a whole bunch of coach certification courses. And hence it is fairly certain that you don’t need to be certified to be a good coach. However, all these players did have a feel of what it takes to be a coach.  Kirsten set up his own academy, Lehmann did coach at various levels before he became head coach of Aussies and Flower was an assistant coach of the England national team previously.

Dravid has a little bit of experience with Rajasthan Royals and will also be their mentor this year. Is this good enough to take over national reigns? I don’t think so.  I would love to see Dravid drafted in as a batting consultant for Team India for England and Australia tours. And of course, he should continue in the same role for the 2015 World Cup.  This should not only greatly help India’s young guns, but also give Dravid valuable experience.

Finally, it is all up to the man himself to take a decision. He has a young family, and wouldn’t want to be on the road again so soon.  However, a few abroad tours till the World Cup shouldn’t be too bad and Dravid can be offered the full role once he thinks he is ready.