'We Made Gary Kirsten, After 2011 He Didn't Win Anything,' Says Virender Sehwag

Gary Kirsten was the head coach of Team India's 2011 squad which lifted the World Cup.

As Team India eye to end their ICC title drought when the Rohit Sharma-led team take part in the ODI World Cup at home later this year. The schedule for the upcoming World Cup was announced earlier this week. In the latest update, India will begin their campaign against five-time World Champions Australia on October 8. India last won an ICC title in 2013 when MS Dhoni led the Men in Blue to the Champions Trophy, the man is also the last Indian skipeer to win the ODI World Cup title in 2011.

The 2011 World Cup took place in India, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka. The side has Gary Kirsten as their head coach with MS Dhoni leading the pack. This year, Rahul Dravid and Rohit Sharma will be aiming to end the ICC trophy drought which has been worrying them for the past ten years. (Fact Check: Has ICC Released India vs Pakistan ODI World Cup 2023 Match Tickets Already?)

During the schedule-unveiling event of the World Cup, Virender Sehwag discussed various topics of the World Cup including its favourites to win, India's chances and many more things. Sehwag also shed some light on the criticism his former teammate Rahul Dravid is facing following India's recent performance in the World Test Championship final against Australia and he made an interesting remark on his former coach Gary Kirsten as well.

Sehwag stated that players are responsible for the reputation of coaches, and claimed that it was Team India that made Kirsten's career as coach.

“Once the player is on the ground, the reputation of the coach depends on him. If the player performs good, coach is lauded, and vice versa. We reached WTC Final but no one was talking about the fact that we reached there. Everyone was critical of us losing the final. Rahul Dravid is a good coach, but at the end of the day, a player has to do the job,” Sehwag said at the ICC event.

“We made Gary Kirsten after winning 2011 World Cup. He coached many teams after that, but didn't win anything except IPL. There too, Ashish Nehra was working a lot more than Kirsten. And this is actually true, you can see it even while watching on the television,” Sehwag stated.

“So, for me, the Indian coaching staff should prioritize keeping the players fresh and getting 100 percent out of them. If that goes well, you can see the Indian captain lifting the World Cup,” Sehwag further added.