“As a coach, you may feel intimidated to tell superstars…”: Brian Lara’s message for Rahul Dravid

NEW DELHI: Brian Lara on Tuesday highlighted that Indian head coach Rahul Dravid will need a tailor-made strategy to maximize the performances of superstars Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma at the T20 World Cup in the Americas next month.

The squad includes eight players from the ICC 2022 event, reflecting the team’s confidence in the unrivaled experience of Kohli and Rohit.

“Sometimes when you have a team with a lot of superstars, you forget the plan and you believe that the superstars can do it. They just have to show up. Sometimes as a coach you can feel intimidated into doing it. telling Sir Vivian Richards or Virat Kohli, you know exactly what you expect from them,” Lara told PTI.

Develop

While discussing the composition of the Indian team, Lara cited the example of the highly experienced West Indies team in the 1987 ODI World Cup. Although captained by legendary cricket figure Sir Vivian Richards, the team of the West Indies ultimately failed to reach the semi-finals of the tournament.

“Firstly, regarding the players selected in the team, let me start by saying that this is a dilemma that many countries have faced in the past. West Indies in 1988 (1987 actually ) are an example of that,” he said.

“Obviously when you have such great players you want to stick with that experience because you feel like they can do it and there’s nothing wrong with that,” he said referring to Kohli and Rohit.

Lara said that given the big names that make up the Indian team, Dravid will have his hands full on the planning front.

“You have a lot of exciting young players coming out and you also have this kind of conundrum. India have gone for a team that has experience. My advice, and this is not my criticism, is my advice to Rahul Dravid is to do course and have a plan,” Lara said.

While he also agreed that Rinku Singh’s omission was pure bad luck, Lara firmly believed that the Rohit Sharma-led team could go the distance in this edition.

“The team is capable of winning the World Cup. Yes, it is a team that may be missing a few youngsters due to the situation. But I still believe that if they plan properly, India could win the World Cup,” Lara said.

(With PTI inputs)