Rahul Dravid's friendship with Rohit Sharma, ex-India coach reveals success mantra as a pair, says ‘I wasn't forced…’

The pair of Rahul Dravid and Rohit Sharma worked wonders for Indian cricket. Ever since the duo held hands in 2021, the Indian team reached the T20 World Cup in 2022 before reaching the ODI World Cup final at home a year later, losing to Australia at the Wankhede Stadium. From the heartbreak at home, the captain-coach duo revived the Indian team's fortunes with two back-to-back ICC trophies within a gap of few months.

India regained their lost glory at the T20 World Cup in 2024 in Barbados before clinching the ICC Champions Trophy in March 2025. Earlier, the combination of MS Dhoni and Gary Kirsten has been successful, but not as much as how things panned out during Dravid and Rohit's tenure together. The duo also won 2023 Asia Cup together. 

According to Dravid, his time with Rohit on non-cricketing matters also helped them in succeeding at the top level on a consistent basis. “I just enjoyed sort of getting to know him as a person and chatting with him,” Dravid told Ravichandran Ashwin on his YouTube channel.

"There were a lot of times (during) our conversations, we were comfortable enough to be able to sit and have conversations with each other without having to talk only cricket," he said. “It felt easy spending time in the evening with him to have a meal, you know, I wasn't forced or it wasn't like, 'oh, we have to convince it and have a meeting',” added Dravid.

He would have returned to India colours in August but with the tour of Bangladesh postponed to 2026, Rohit will next be seen during India's tour of Australia in October.