Rahul relishes 'added responsibility', says Dravid brings 'team ahead of personal goals' culture

India were knocked out of the T20 World Cup played in the UAE under the leadership of Virat Kohli and as his tenure as the captain of the Indian T20I side has ended, a new era of India’s T20I cricket is set to emerge with the leadership group of Rahul Dravid, Rohit Sharma and KL Rahul.

Both Rahul and Rohit were part of India’s T20I side in the just-concluded world cup and their failure too contributed to the team’s downward curve in the tournament. Hence the next edition of the T20 World Cup due to be played next year in Australia is the topmost agenda in the mind of Rahul. 

He called the 2022 T20 World Cup India’s “long term goal” but maintained that they won’t be too far ahead of themselves and instead will focus on “process” in each series and game to come to a conclusion on what sort of “template” they want to follow in the shortest format of the game.

"The long term goal is to focus on the World Cup (in 2022), but we will focus on the process. We will look at one series at a time and one game at a time. For a template, I think we all need to sit and decide on what brand of cricket team India wants to play to get the best performances," Rahul said in the pre-series press conference.

Rohit Sharma has taken over the captaincy from Virat Kohli in the T20I format and albeit he has led Team India on numerous occasions in the past, the series against New Zealand will be his first stint as full-time captain. For Rahul though, Rohit’s leadership is not a new phenomenon and he is eagerly looking forward to “exciting” few weeks alongside him in the upcoming series.

"There is nothing new with Rohit being the captain and the stats are there for everyone to see with Mumbai Indians. He has a great understanding of the game and is tactically very good. The next couple of weeks will be exciting for us to understand what kind of cricket we are going to play," he said.

Rahul has been elevated to vice-captaincy and he is not shy of accepting the responsibility and said that he has always enjoyed having “added responsibilities” on his shoulders. He underlined the importance of making a pleasant atmosphere in the dressing room that gives space to every player coming into the side as his pertinent goal as the vice-captain.

He also expressed his reliance on the incoming coach Rahul Dravid for bringing a “culture” of putting the team’s needs over personal goals in place. He recalled his good experience with Dravid while playing for Karnataka and expressed confidence of being certain about the qualities Drvaid would bring to the Indian dressing room.

"It will be an added responsibility but I have always enjoyed that. The most important thing is to make sure everyone who is coming into the dressing room is happy and feeling welcome. With Rahul Dravid coming in, I'm sure he'll make that happen."

"As a youngster, I tried pick his brain and he was always kind to share his knowledge with us back in Karnataka. We are very excited to have him as we could hope to learn from him and understand the game better. He has always been a team man and that is the culture he wants to bring in here as well," Rahul concluded.

"When it comes to coaching, I've played a couple of games with the India A set-up, and we've had a small chat just before coming out here for training, and he's somebody who's big on setting a good team culture and creating an atmosphere where people are thriving and trying to get better as people and as cricketers. He's always been a team man when he was playing, and that's the kind of culture he wants to bring in here as well, where everyone's putting the team ahead of personal goals."