Former coach Rahul Dravid has made it clear that he is basically not a fan of Gautam Gambhir’s idea of ending the superstar culture in Indian cricket. Gambhir has been a vocal proponent of the tendency to celebrate individual achievements to end and that team success should be given more importance.
While Dravid found no problem with Gambhir’s idea, he said that every sport needs its fair share of heroes and individual accolades play a role in a team’s success. The former Indian captain played at a time when Indian cricket had superstars in the form of Sachin Tendulkar, Sourav Ganguly, VVS Laxman and Virender Sehwag. This famous core took Indian cricket to new heights.
So Dravid said you can’t become a hero in India without their performances backing it up.
“Any sport needs its heroes and I don’t think people become heroes without performances. You can’t capture the imagination of a nation if you don’t lead on the field, especially in India where you get a lot of praise for what you do, but also a lot of unlucky ones. There’s a lot of scrutiny and constant focus on you. So to become a legend or a superstar, you’ve done a lot in India and you’ve also helped your team win,” he said. Dravid to Wisden on the Scoop podcast.
HARD TO REPLACE ROHIT, KOHLI
Dravid recently weighed in on India’s performance in Test cricket, which has not been at its best under Gambhir. India suffered a domestic streak of white spots under Gambhir against New Zealand and South Africa.
Dravid said that replacing the likes of Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli and R Ashwin will not be easy, but he expects the team to bounce back and perform well.
“The passion to do well in red-ball cricket is definitely there. We’ve had a couple of series where we haven’t played as well as the Indian team and that can happen. We’re also missing a few key players, some of the big names have retired recently – Rohit, Virat and Ashwin – and it’s not easy to replace such players. But Indian cricket will play some time, but I believe Indian cricket will play some time, but I still believe that in Indian cricket will be very strong. hopefully we will be able to turn things around this season,” said Dravid.
Dravid also said that with a lot of white-ball cricket, it is difficult for players to switch between formats.
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Published on:
16 May 2026 14:55 IST
