Rahul Dravid's Future Remains Uncertain After World Cup Loss

Even though his two-year contract with the Indian national team concluded on Sunday, head coach Rahul Dravid needs time to think about his future after suffering a devastating World Cup final loss.

With this assignment, 'Mr Dependable's contract with the BCCI has officially terminated. India lost the World Cup final match against Australia by six wickets.

Even though Dravid has led the squad to two ICC event finals and one semi-final during his two-year tenure, the matter has not yet been discussed within the BCCI.

When asked about his outlook for the future and if he is sticking to one style of game coaching, Dravid remained evasive.

"I haven't thought about it. I've just come off a game. I had no time to think about this and no time to reflect on this. Yeah, I will when I get the time to do that," he told the reporters after the game.

The 50-year-old said that he doesn't think it's appropriate to evaluate his own two years in office. "At this point in time, I was completely focused on this campaign and there was nothing else on my mind. And I haven't given any other thought to what happens in the future."

He declined to comment when asked if he would be interested in leading the team during the T20 World Cup in the USA and the West Indies the following year. "To be honest, I am not really someone who's going to judge and analyse myself. I was really proud to work with. I think the players that I worked with over the last two years in all the formats, it's been a privilege."

"Honestly, I haven't thought about it. I think all our campaign, all our energies were focused on this match, focused on this tournament, and focused till here. And I haven't actually given it any thought or I have no plans, I have had no plans of what's going to happen in the future," said the former captain of India.

The coach smiled when asked whether some of the greatest Indian cricket players of all time missed their chance to win a World Cup since it would be too late for them to participate in the four-year tournament in South Africa.

"I'm not really thinking about 2027 and who's going to be there and who's not going to be there. There's a lot of time for that. A lot of water will flow under the bridge before that. There'll be a lot of time for that," Dravid said.

Rohit had a stake in this group.

Declaring Rohit to be an amazing leader, Dravid said how committed the captain was to this group and how he made an extra effort to spend time getting to know the lads in the locker room.

"He's been a wonderful leader. Rohit has really guided this squad really well. He's got the dressing room, and he's given the lads a lot of his time and effort there.

"He has consistently made himself accessible for all of our meetings and talks. Sometimes there's been a lot of planning, a lot of strategy that goes in. He's been devoted to those things all along. He has invested a great deal of his own time and effort into this campaign," he said.

It's hard to detect the disillusionment in the changing area.

After the match, the Indian cricket players were shattered, and as a coach, it was difficult to see the range of emotions.

He's obviously dissatisfied, as are a lot of the lads in the changing area. As a coach, it was difficult to see since I am aware of the amount of effort, sacrifice, and hard work these men have done.

"So, it's tough. I mean, it's tough to see that as a coach, because you get to know these boys personally."

"We didn't act defensively."

"We were not defensive; we were bold in our cricket, scoring 80 runs in the first powerplay. Sometimes, you have to rebuild an innings after losing a few wickets.

"They also did the same when Head and Labuschagne batted but they did not lose wicket and kept going," said Dravid.

"We were 40 runs short."

India scored 240 runs less than par, but Pat Cummins' squad smashed the goal in 43 overs to win a record-tying sixth championship.

Virat Kohli (54 off 63) and K L Rahul (66 off 107) moved into consolidation mode in the middle overs, when the hosts could only hit the boundary twice, after losing three wickets for 81 runs.

Dravid thought they were a little short of the 290-track.

"At first, with the sun on, it moved a little slowly. However, I felt it performed well. It was very likely a wicket between 280 and 290. There was not 240.

"Those forty more runs should have been ours. That may have increased Australia's pressure. Later on, I thought it performed extremely nicely as well. Thus, I considered it to be a rather decent wicket. Looks might be a little misleading at times. Honestly, not all that many tricks.

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