Team India’s outgoing coach Rahul Dravid has shared his coaching philosophy, where he revealed why results are secondary to him and the relationship he shared with the likes of Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli during his two-and-a-half years tenure as the head coach of the Indian team.

“I don’t really like talking more about results” – Rahul Dravid

In a candid interview with BCCI.tv, he revealed, “As a coach at the end of the day my job is to help the captain deliver his vision, his philosophy of how he wants the team to play. I don’t really like talking more about results. Yes results are important. I am in a business that runs on results. “I think results are the factor of many things. When you are constantly rotating players and the kind of number of players you will have to play in spite of that the kind of results we got in these past months have given me more satisfaction.”

Rahul Dravid also said that he has loved working with Rohit Sharma and enjoyed watching him grow as a player first and then as a captain too. Under his leadership, India reached the final of the ODI World Cup in 2023 and won the T20 World Cup recently as well.

“I have really enjoyed working with Rohit. He is someone I knew as a young boy. Just to see him grow as a person, grow as a leader in Indian cricket. He is someone who is able to contribute to the team in the last ten or twelve years, both as a player and now as a leader. It has been a real tribute to him and the effort he has put in the time he has put in. I really enjoy getting to know him as a person as well,” said Dravid.

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“His desire to improve, his desire to get better is fascinating to watch” – Rahul Dravid on Virat Kohli

He also opened up on his bond with Virat Kohli.

“I only had a chance to work with him in a couple of series, in a couple of Test matches when he was the captain. I am getting to know him as well. His desire to improve, his desire to get better is fascinating to watch,” he added.

Rahul Dravid also shared his philosophy as a coach and why he believes that coaching is more about creating a safe environment instead of chasing the results as well.

“I like to believe that coaching is not just about coaching cricket. This is about building connections with the people and creating right environment that allows for success. I feel that I am a part of the team whose responsibility is to create the right professional, safe, secure environment that really doesn’t have fear of failure as such but its challenging enough to push people. That is always been my endeavour to try and create that atmosphere,” he says.

“I am someone who likes continuity in life. I don’t like chopping and changing too many things because I think that creates a lot of instability and doesn’t create a very good environment. The vision of course is to win a cricket game. You try to win as much as you can. But I always look back to the fact that what is it that leads to the winning? How do you win more games?

What is the process required to win more games? For me, the vision was to get that process right. Ticking all those boxes. How do you challenge the players enough? How do you practice enough, how do you well prepare tactically and technically? Are we supporting the players in the right way? These are the things I wanted to tick before going on to the winning. Hopefully, if we would do most of these things, winning will take care of itself,” he concluded.