Former Indian head coach Rahul Dravid said ex-skipper Rohit Sharma deserves a lot of credit for changing India’s approach in T20Is. Under Rohit’s tutelage, India adopted an aggressive approach with the bat in the shortest format after the 2022 T20 World Cup semifinal loss against England.

Rohit led from the front as he gave blistering starts to the team while opening the innings. Consequently, India was able to end their World Cup hoodoo after winning the T20I showpiece by beating South Africa in the summit clash. 

Dravid said the players and the captain deserve all the credit for embracing the aggressive approach.

“From the time I came in, a lot of the discussion with Rohit around was around that we wanted to play a more aggressive brand of cricket. And we tried we started right from the beginning because we could see that that’s the way the game was evolving and Rohit deserves a lot of credit for it. To move the team in a particular direction. Play the game in a lot more aggressive and a lot more positive manner and I’m glad that we’ve sort of kept going in that direction to the point where I think India’s kind of changing what T20 cricket is like,” Dravid said on ‘Breakfast with Champions’.

Dravid admitted it is challenging to communicate with players, who are not picked in the squad, as India has a lot of depth.

“I think the challenge is communicating to people when they’re not picked in teams or why you have to drop certain people or why it’s a combination you’re playing. Not all of them will agree with you at times. And that’s and that’s part of the job, right? Because you sometimes don’t even have good enough explanations to people as to why they are not picked and you know, because they might be good enough. And it’s just that somebody else happens to be equally good enough,” he said.

India is currently taking on Australia in a five-match T20I series.