In his biography ‘Believe,’ former Indian batsman Suresh Raina shed light on an interesting aspect of Indian cricket that is easily overlooked by the majority. In an excerpt from the book published on The Print, Raina was found talking about the importance of Rahul Dravid and the impact he left on the next generation of players that helped India carve a successful legacy in world cricket.
“Rahul Bhai was always like family. He would keep fighting for the rights of the junior players. Those extra efforts always matter and leave an impact on people. Youngsters were very important to him. Look at the kind of players who matured under him—the ones that went on to lead India over the next decade. These included M.S. Dhoni, Irfan Pathan, Yuvraj, Piyush Chawla, Dinesh Karthik, Munaf Patel, S. Sreesanth and myself.
Rahul Bhai knew that these seven or eight boys would be the face of the team in the coming years. And he made sure that we were nurtured well.”
Raina even went on to add that he disagreed with people who usually credit MS Dhoni or Sourav Ganguly for setting up the Indian team in a way which has allowed it to rule the world and perform consistently at a very high level. He believes it was Dravid and his belief in the youngsters that led to India’s golden generation.
“Generally, when people talk about the Indian cricket team that has emerged over the last 10–15 years, the credit is usually given to Dhoni, or to Ganguly before him, for having built the team and taken Indian cricket forward. I have never quite agreed with that. I never say Dada made this team. He, and Dhoni, did lead and make an impact on it, that’s true. But the man responsible for making the teams for all three formats of the game is Rahul Dravid.
“Rahul Bhai would often fight with selectors to include young talent in the Indian team. And one advice he would keep giving us was that we should go back to playing Ranji Trophy whenever possible, perform well and score heavily there, and then come and play for the Indian team again. He was an extremely match-oriented coach and player that way. He would himself keep playing multiple matches for his state in the Ranji Trophy. In fact, when we would practise at the NCA, I heard him complain a couple of times; he told us that we should instead be playing Ranji Trophy matches,” Raina concluded.
