India batting great Sunil Gavaskar said that Rohit Sharma and Rahul Dravid‘s bond will be good because of their similar nature. Rohit Sharma was appointed India’s T20 captain after Virat Kohli stepped down from the post. As for Rahul Dravid, he became India’s head coach as Ravi Shastri‘s tenure came to a halt. While Shastri’s last assignment as coach was the T20 World Cup, Dravid’s first assignment will be the series against New Zealand, at home.

Highlighting the similarities between, Rohit and Dravid, Gavaskar said the two men will work well together easily.

“If you look at both of their temperaments, they are quite similar. Rohit is of a quiet nature just like Rahul Dravid.

“So I think their bond will be quite good because both of them will understand each other well,” Gavaskar said.

Gavaskar also added that Dravid will handle his new responsibility as head coach of the Indian team in the same “safe and strong” manner as he went about his batting while playing for the country.

“When he used to play, we used to think that till Rahul Dravid is at the crease, the Indian batting is safe and strong,” Gavaskar said.

“This is the reason why I believe that the new responsibility of head coach that falls upon him, he will be able to handle it in a similar way.”

Ahead of the match against New Zealand, Dravid admitted he will have to think long-term but also need to focus on ensuring that the team is on winning way.

“You can’t coach different teams in the same way. Certain principles of coaching will never change. But of course, the teams that you coach, they come with a unique set of challenges, unique set of requirements,” Dravid said.

“You can’t say that everything I did at the under 19 level I will do here. That will not be the way I would go about things. For me as well it is an opportunity to learn and get to know the players.

“Your responsibility as a support staff is to mold yourself to be able to get the best out of the players and that’s my philosophy,” said Dravid, who has also worked on the younger generation as the NCA chief.