There are two sides to preparing for an event as big as the World Cup in a team sport. One is the physical preparation and the other is the getting the team together. For Rahul Dravid, who, for one last time, is guiding a group of star players for the T20 World Cup, will have a tough task in hand dealing with the second kind of preparation, especially in the wake of what unfolded in IPL 2024. While all still remain as speculations with no official quotes, even from other players, Rohit Sharma and Hardik Pandya did not see eye to eye in the Mumbai Indians dressing room, leading to a rumoured break in the team as they finished 10th in the points table.

As the two senior players, who are respectively the captain and vice-captain, assemble in New York for the T20 World Cup, Dravid will have a tough job in getting the two together and avoid an MI-like situation in the Indian dressing room.

However, former India cricketer Irfan Pathan, in conversation with ESPNCricinfo, reckoned that Dravid should not even bring up the IPL topic and rather focus on creating a sense of belief in Hardik on his importance in the line-up and in India going the distance in the T20 World Cup tournament.

“I will not even discuss this. Whatever happened has happened. I will just say that this is my expectation from you: I want you to win matches for India. This is the roadmap, and you are an important part of the team and a match-winner. Being an all-rounder, I will say he will play a crucial role. How many fast bowlers have we taken? Just three specialist bowlers, besides Hardik and Shivam Dube. So when the time comes, these 3-4 overs will become very crucial. Remember, he will allow us to play an extra spinner in West Indies when we play day games. So this is where he comes into the picture, he needs to feel good and believe that he can make a contribution and hence the conversation of the IPL should not be even happening even once,” Pathan said.

The legendary all-rounder also sent Dravid a stern reminder of how Greg Chappell's Aussie methodology failed to work in the Indian set-up that believes in “celebrity culture.” Pathan said that while he felt Chappell's intentions for Indian cricket during his infamous tenure was pure, his aggressive approach in dealing with it failed to work.

“Australia do not have a celebrity culture, but we have that. Ideally, I would want that balance between the two cultures. But we are Indians, out mindset and ethics are different. I said this before as well, when Greg Chappell came in, his intentions were pure. He wanted Indian cricket to go on a high and hence wanted every player to be treated equally and work in the same way. But his way was proper Australian, which did not work in India. I have huge respect for him. I told to him as well that while you want Indian cricket to grow, this aggression won't work,” he added.

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