The European T20 Premier League (ETPL) sees legendary Indian batter and former head coach Rahul Dravid in a never-before-seen avatar, as the coach of the Dublin Guardians franchise. Vikram Rathore, who is the coach of the franchise, has seen Dravid as part of the support staff. However, Rathore revealed that despite the fact that the franchise failed to win a single game so far, Dravid has been thoroughly supportive.
“Rahul is behaving like an owner. I mean, he hasn’t been too involved. So, it’s been good. But I mean, as I said earlier, it is great to have somebody like him on the other side, because he spent enough time being a coach. So, he understands how the teams can go and how the results can go. So, he’s been very supportive through the initial phase of this tournament, where we haven’t won anything. We didn’t win any games out of the first five that we played. But he has been very supportive,” said Rathore during a virtual media roundtable. “He’s been really good, which you expect from somebody like Rahul anyway,” he added.
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The franchise is led by veteran Indian all-rounder Ravichandran Ashwin, who is no longer involved in mainstream cricket. Rathore also shared that it’s mostly Ashwin who has taken up the responsibility of day-to-day cricketing affairs, be it making strategies against opponents, selection or other things as well. Dravid, despite being the owner, hasn’t involved in such decision-making.
“As far as Ashwin is concerned, obviously, he has great knowledge of cricket, of cricketers. He’s basically almost a cricket fanatic, I call him. He watches so much cricket, and he has so much knowledge of players from all around the world. That is like phenomenal,” said Rathore.
“It surprises you, actually, at times, how much he knows about these conditions and these players. So, again, a great help to have somebody like him around. Because, like I said earlier, my time has been spent in Indian cricket mostly. So, for me, it was something very new and very different. But having somebody like Ashwin around has really helped,” he concluded.
