Fusion of Rahul Dravid & Zaheer Khan is Invaluable in Shastri’s Surveillance

Recently while India ended their series against the Carribean, the team members had an empty dug out without having any official head coach for this side as Kumble had already gone out of the business post the Champions trophy finale. But now the situation took a turnaround as the Indian dug out is filled with three major heads naming Ravi Shastri as Indian Head Coach, Zaheer Khan as Bowling Coach and Rahul Dravid as Batting Consultant. Since the appointment made its way to the team, the whole nation has been mulling over the picture of Zaheer Khan and Dravid’s upcoming duo which will serve Indian cricket with their future cricketing convictions. On the other end, Shastri’s arrival as head coach hasn’t been pondered that much as he was already leading the league of applicants as favourite prior to the selection of team’s head coach.

In his first exclusive interview as head coach, Shastri showed up his honoured approach towards the selection committee for handing over the realm of the top job left vacant following Kumble’s resignation last month. “Zaheer Khan and Rahul Dravid will be invaluable in the team. I had spoken to both of them in 2014 to spend some time with the boys. Some fresh input coming in is always helpful,” Shastri added from London.

Sanjay Bangar’s impetus as full-time Indian batting coach has now become much stronger as the fusion of Dravid, Zaheer and Shastri’s appointment has put Indian’s coaching staff on a dream platter.

As a legendary batsman, Dravid had been the crux of Indian batting in his days. Also, he has accomplished many more feats as a coach while involving with India A and U-19 teams in the last two years. In his first coaching assignment, India A won the Tri-series in Australia. Repeating the same glory as the coach of the Under-19 team, he guided them to the final of the 2016 World Cup in Bangladesh, where they lost to West Indies. He also seems to continue his Under 19 coaching expedition along with his 2 years contract with the Indian team.

Dravid and Zaheer already had experienced working together at the dug out of Delhi Daredevil’s franchise for two years in which the former was the team mentor cum coach and later was the captain cum most senior player in the squad. Finally, at the end of his career graph, Zaheer had been dominant in the role of a mentor for Indian pacers like Ishant Sharma, Umesh Yadav and Mohammed Shami. His leadership approach as a bowler has been instrumental in shaping up the careers of junior bowlers.