Dravid counters Gambhir’s criticism of 'superstar' culture in Indian cricket: 'Sport needs its heroes'

Former India head coach Rahul Dravid has expressed disagreement with his successor Gautam Gambhir's approach of eliminating superstar culture from the Indian cricket team.

While Gambhir emphasises cricket as a collective sport over individual glory, Dravid underscored the importance of having 'heroes' who inspire and elevate the game.

Dravid highlights the need for heroes

Dravid stressed that sports thrive on individuals who inspire with their performance and also noted that in India, stardom is attained by consistently delivering on the field, despite criticism and scrutiny. The Indian batting great added that legends are not made by hype, but by doing things right and helping their team succeed.

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“Any sport needs its heroes, and I don’t think people become heroes without performances. You can’t capture the imagination of a nation if you don’t deliver on the field, especially in India, where you get a lot of praise for what you do, but also a lot of brickbats. There’s a lot of scrutiny and constant focus on you. So to become a legend or a superstar in India means you’ve done a lot of things right, and in the process, you’ve also helped your team win,” Dravid said on Wisden's The Scoop.

Dravid: Not easy to replace Kohli, Rohit & Ashwin

Dravid also touched upon Team India's recent red-ball performances and acknowledged the challenges. He pointed out that the retirements of Virat Kohli, Rohit Sharma and R Ashwin have affected the team's balance, but expressed confidence in the unit to pull off a turnaround.

“The passion to do well in red-ball cricket is definitely there. We’ve had a couple of series where we haven’t performed as well as an Indian team, and that can happen. We are also missing a few key players, with some of the big names having recently retired – Rohit, Virat and Ashwin – and it is not easy to replace players like that.

"But Indian cricket remains very strong. I still believe the Indian team will be competitive in every format it plays. It may take a little time, but hopefully this season we will be able to turn things around,” Dravid added.

Following the IPL, Team India will face Afghanistan in a one-off test this year before turning their attention to white-ball cricket. Their next big red-ball assignment will take place in January 2027 during Australia's tour of India.