The new head coach of the Indian cricket team, Rahul Dravid, has fondly remembered the time when he had told a 19-year-old Rohit Sharma in Ireland back in 2007 that he was going to play his first One-Day International (ODI) match for India.
Rahul Dravid was the captain of India for that tour of Ireland and England in 2007, a tour for which Rohit was picked in the Indian national squad for the first time.
Although Rohit was not one of India’s first-choice players on the tour, he got the opportunity because MS Dhoni, India’s vice-captain on the tour, was rested for the game against Ireland. Rohit, however, didn’t get to bat in his first ODI as Ireland, batting first, didn’t put a lot of runs on the board.
Ireland were bundled out for 193 and India’s top order of Sachin Tendulkar, Sourav Ganguly and Gautam Gambhir got the job done in response by chasing the target down with utmost ease.
Rohit might not have had to contribute anything with the bat in that game, but it was the start of a wonderful career which has now seen him reach a stage where he is regarded as one of the all-time greats of Indian white-ball cricket.
Always knew Rohit Sharma was a special talent: Rahul Dravid
Recalling 2007, Dravid said that back in the day he could clearly see that Rohit was a special talent and it was not just on that UK tour, but he had seen Rohit before that as well, in the challenger trophy tournament in Madras (Chennai).
However, what he had not thought at that point of time was he would be back again working with Rohit in a captain-coach relationship 14 years down the road.
Rohit Sharma and Rahul Dravid were addressing the press conference yesterday ahead of India’s T20I series against New Zealand which will see the start of a new era for India, not just in T20 international cricket, but white ball cricket in general.
