Raman certain Dravid will be appointed India's full-time head coach in the future

While Rahul Dravid maybe with the Indian team as a stand-in head coach, given that Ravi Shastri is currently in England with the Virat Kohli-led Indian side ahead of the Test series, former India batsman WV Raman reckons that it is just a matter of time before Dravid takes over as the full-time head coach.

“I won’t want to talk about the time frame but that (Dravid taking over as full-time head coach) is likely to happen, maybe sometime in the future. I can’t be indulging in crystal ball glazing and say when it will happen but it will happen whenever Dravid is ready. In fact, there has been a lot of talk going around for the last four-five years. It’ll happen when he feels he’s ready to take the travel,” Raman told Hindustan Times.

Raman adds that Dravid must be given a longer rope so that he can mold the youngsters in the team. 

“He can make them aware of the talent they possess. And he can also help them utilise that talent towards achieving the optimum. He’s anyway worked with most of these youngsters for a period of three-four years. But if he’s there with them regularly for a period of say two years, it will be easier to make changes as both the players and he will stick together and chalk out a plan or a routine on how to go about things. So a lot depends on the tenure that a coach works with the players,” Raman, the former head coach of the India Women team said.

“The very presence of Rahul Dravid will give these cricketers reassurance because he’s a calm person by nature and he’s also one of those who believes that failures are part of a cricketer’s career. He can sit with them, make sure they don’t get dejected, which is very important because when a cricketer is doing well, the entire world will be behind him. It’s only when they are having a bad day that they need somebody to have a chat with. Rahul Dravid is someone who is very good at it, he can pick the players up,” he added.

Under Dravid's watchful eyes, India will take on Sri Lanka in a three-match One-Day International (ODI) series and as many T20 Internationals (T20I) starting later today (July 18). In Kohli and Rohit Sharma's absence, Shikhar Dhawan will lead India in all the matches, with Bhuvneshwar Kumar being his deputy.

With Dravid at the helm, India won the Under-19 World Cup in New Zealand in 2018. He has been credited with shaping up the current generation of youngsters including Shubman Gill and Prithvi Shaw. He is currently working with the young talent at the National Cricket Academy (NCA) in Bangalore.