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Current Team India coach Gautam Gambhir wants to eradicate ‘superstar culture’ in Indian cricket but his predecessor Rahul Dravid is of the opinion that the sport needs ‘heroes’ to inspire the next generation. Both are right in their own way as their views contrast with each other.

Dravid spoke about how India’s recent Test form with Gambhir as coach has not been good. He highlighted that the team had not moved on from the retirements of Virat Kohli, Rohit Sharma and Ravichandran Ashwin.

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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," he said while speaking on Wisden's 'Scoop' podcast.

"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," he added.

Rahul Dravid’s Honest Take

"Red-ball cricket is still very important. There are still players who want to play red-ball cricket. Among players, there is a strong sense that it is probably the toughest format of the game and something that brings a lot of personal satisfaction when you succeed in it. But there is also a lot of white-ball cricket being played, and we have to be realistic about that. Many of these players today are having to juggle multiple formats, and it is not always easy because they may not get as much time to prepare for red-ball cricket as my generation did. We effectively had fewer formats, and when I think about the preparation that went into some of the Test series I played, I feel the current players, not because they don't want to, but because of the volume of cricket, are sometimes unable to find that same balance," he continued.

Under Dravid as coach, India won the 2024 T20 World Cup. Gambhir played an important part in winning the 2025 Champions Trophy and the T20 World Cup earlier this year. The next target for Gambhir is the ODI World Cup in 2027. Dravid’s coaching saw India go all the way to the final in 2023 but they lost in the end. India also lost the WTC Final the same year.