Ravi Shastri, Rahul Dravid, Zaheer Khan: The right guides because they know the struggle

Bengaluru, July 12: Is there a common character thread between Ravi Shastri, Rahul Dravid and Zaheer Khan - the three men entrusted to guide the Indian cricket team till the 2019 World Cup. Can they transform themselves into a motivating group when India touch tough shores soon? Before finding an answer we need to know the basic nature of them.

Shastri, the new head coach, does not fit into the conventional image of a coach - studious, laptop savvy and jargon coughing. He is a man of this world who loves his drink, good company and banter. But that masks a shrewd cricketing brain.

Dravid is the perfect role model that you hope your son would turn into some day. Hard working, man of principles and deep thoughts.

Zaheer is a reticent person. But only to the world. Within the dressing room and on the field, 'Zak' is a friend and philosopher to younger players and a willing and patient listener.

So, they are as different as chalk and cheese as individuals. But there's an unseen link. All three had to waddle through immense struggles in their respective careers to reach the top of the shelf.

While starting his career, Shatri was primarly seen as a left arm-spinner and a lower-order batsman but he ended up as an opener with a double hundred in Australia and a frontline all-rounder of his time.

Similarly, Dravid, who cut his teeth in international cricket after a lengthy first-class wait, often had to listen to the lesser-gifted-player refrain while getting compared to his teammates and contemporaries. But Dravid took 24,177 international runs along with him when he left the arena. Oh yes! None performed better for India on foreign soil. Jamaica, London, Adelaide, Hamilton, Johannesburg, Rawalpindi, once the cities of doom for Indian batsmen were conquered with elan.

Compared to Shastri and Dravid, Zaheer never really had to suffer the no-talent chant. But there were several other points against him - lazy, no work ethics, aloof and so on. During a career that lasted well over a decade, the left-arm pacer also had to battle several injuries - elbow. back, ankle. Despite all that, he emerged one of the craftiest bowlers of his time, ending up with 593 international scalps.

That's the common thread we're talking about. They'd struggled constantly against world's perceptions about them throughout their career. More significantly, they are sensitive to others harships because they themselves had gone through such situations.

In the coming months, the Indian team will have a slew of assignments away from home. The grind starts with a tour to Sri Lanka from July 26, then we have South Africa (in Nov-Dec 2017), England (mid-2018) and Australia (end of 2018). On these tours, the team will require help both at technical and personal levels and the Cricket Advisory Committee, comprising Sachin Tendulkar, Sourav Ganguly and VVS Laxman, was spot on with their selection.

Shastri, Dravid and Zaheer are capable of discussing tehnical issues with players on an individual basis because all of them have toured the aforementioned destinations extenisvely in their careers. As they say, nothing can replace practical knowledge.

India are bound to meet several difficult days on these tours and players will need more an arm around them on those days than extensive discourse on footwork and wrist position. Shastri is a master in that art as he proved while taking over the role of Team Director in 2014 after a wretched Test series against England. Suddenly, India regained their competitive spirit to win the subsequent ODI series.

But don't think he is too easy going. The former Indian captain can be brutally in-your-face, just that he wisely chooses the occasion to shed the kid gloves.

We too need to be patient now that the choice has been made. India will look shabby on the field. There will be some results that are difficult to swallow. But trust these men to hold the team together and steward to right shores.

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