Dressing Room - Rahul Dravid

Rahul Dravid made his Test debut for India along with Sourav Ganguly in the 2^nd Test versus England at Lords during India’s tour of England in 1996. He made a solid and composed 95 which did not get the due credit that it deserved because it was overshadowed by Ganguly’s 131 in the same Test. That was the story of Dravid’s career. He did not get the due credit that he deserved because his career overlapped with that of more flamboyant and charismatic batsmen like Sachin Tendulkar, Virender Sehwag and VVS Laxman. This could be looked at in two ways depending on a person’s point of view. It either deprived him of well-deserved recognition or it left him free to carry on with his job of scoring runs for India without being distracted by excessive attention.

Dravid played in 164 Tests and scored 13288 runs at a batting average of 52.31 with 36 centuries and 63 fifties. Dravid has scored the 4^th highest number of runs, played the joint 5^th most number of Tests and scored the 5^th most number of centuries by a player in Test cricket. A common criticism of Dravid’s batting was that he did not score his runs at a quick enough rate and often failed to press home the advantage. However, in reality nothing could be further from the truth as his solid batting was the ideal foil for the stroke players like Tendulkar, Sehwag and Laxman who could play their strokes with freedom without worrying about the team getting bowled out cheaply. If an Indian all-time Test XI were to be picked, he would be a certainty after players like Tendulkar and Sunil Gavaskar. Dravid initially started his career, batting as low as the number 7 position but was soon promoted to the number 3 spot. It was felt that he had the technique and temperament to blunt the new ball and that of all Indian batsmen he was the one who put a price on his wicket the most.

Dravid batted at the crucial number 3 position in 219 out of his 286 innings in Tests and scored 10524 runs at 52.88 with 28 centuries. This is the 2^nd highest number of runs scored by a player at number 3 after Kumar Sangakkara and his 28 centuries are the 3^rd highest at the number 3 position after Sangakkara and Ricky Ponting.

In spite of not getting the recognition that he deserved, Dravid played crucial roles in most of India’s famous victories during his career span. His 233 and unbeaten 72 at Adelaide in December 2003 was instrumental in what is probably India’s most famous win away from home. His 270 against Pakistan at Rawalpindi in April 2004 was vital in India winning their first ever Test series against Pakistan away from home. He scored a valuable 148 against England at Leeds when Sourav Ganguly bravely elected to bat on a green pitch and he blunted England’s new ball attack thereby laying the foundation for Tendulkar and Ganguly to score brisk centuries once the wind had been knocked from England’s sails. Dravid scored critical knocks of 81 and 68 against West Indies at Sabina Park in Kingston, Jamaica to enable India to win a Test series in the Caribbean after 35 years. Dravid had 2 brilliant tours of England in 2002 and 2011 averaging 100.33 and 76.83 respectively, scoring 3 centuries on each tour. In 2011, when India were trounced 4-0, he was the only player to come out with his reputation unscathed and he showed that he was not just a fair-weather player but capable of scoring runs in tough conditions.

It wasn’t all hunky dory for Dravid in Tests though. The two countries where he had underwhelming records with the bat were Australia and South Africa. In Australia he averaged just 41.64 from 16 Tests with just the one century at Adelaide in December 2003. In South Africa, he scored just 624 runs from 11 Tests at 29,71 with just 1 century. During Australia’s victorious tour of India in 2004 when they won a Test series in India after 35 years, Dravid scored just 167 runs at 27.83 and a batting strike rate of 27.28. The Australians frustrated him by bowling at his pads and packing the leg side with fielders in the ring and Dravid did not possess the ability to improvise and break the shackles.

Dravid was quite an astute captain and while he wasn’t remonstrative and not prone to outward displays of emotion on the field, he led India to Test series wins both in the West Indies and in England. If we impose a minimum cutoff of 5 Tests, Dravid’s win-loss ratio of 1.33 is the 4^th best among Indian captains after Virat Kohli, Sourav Ganguly and Mahendra Singh Dhoni. He quit the Test captaincy after India’s victorious tour of England in 2007 and his introverted nature meant that he did not get the credit that he deserved for his capable leadership.

India’s most famous win at home was their 179-run win against Australia at the Eden Gardens in March 2001 and while VVS Laxman deservedly stole the limelight for his 281, Dravid’s 180 was equally valuable as without his support, Australia would have run through the batsmen at the other end. That seemed to be the story of Dravid’s career but he was such a team man that he never once complained about not getting his share of the credit. If we take a 2000 run cutoff, Dravid has the 3^rd highest batting average for India after Tendulkar and Virat Kohli and has the 2^nd highest number of centuries for India in Tests after Tendulkar. Dravid faced 31258 balls in Tests which is the most number of deliveries faced by any batsman in Tests. He also spent 44152 minutes at the crease which is the most spent by any batsman at the crease in Tests. Another feature of Dravid’s Test career which is often overlooked is his capability as a slip fielder. He was as safe as houses in the slips and his 210 catches is a record by a non-wicketkeeper in Tests. Unfortunately, there are no fairytale finishes in sport and Dravid played his last Test against Australia in January 2012 and scored just 25 in his last Test innings as India were on the receiving end of a 4-0 pounding. One of the purple patches in Dravid’s Test career was between April 2000 till the last Test of the West Indies tour at Kingston which commenced on 30^th June 2006. During this period, he scored 6228 runs from 67 Tests at a stupendous batting average of 66.25 with 17 centuries. He was the 3^rd highest run scorer in Tests during this period and his batting average during this period was the highest among any player who had scored a minimum of 1200 runs.

ODIs

One of the wrong conclusions perpetuated by cricket fans is that Dravid was not capable of playing ODI cricket. It is true that he wasn’t as great a player in ODIs as he was in Tests but that was because he set impossibly high standards in Tests. Dravid played in 344 ODIs and scored 10889 runs at a batting average of 39.16 and a batting strike rate of 71.24 with 12 centuries. Dravid is the 9^th highest scorer in the history of ODIs and while a batting strike rate of 71.24 may be considered pedestrian by today’s standards, it was considered acceptable in his era. To put things in perspective, Sourav Ganguly is considered a great batsman in ODIs and scored at just 2 runs per 100 balls quicker than Dravid.

Another example of Dravid’s selfless attitude was that he agreed to take up wicket-keeping in ODIs at Ganguly’s insistence, to give India’s ODI team the required balance. Dravid was a reluctant keeper but realised that the team would be better served if he took up the gloves. Dravid kept wicket for India in 73 ODIs and scored 2300 runs at 44.23 and a batting strike rate of 72.6. His batting average and batting strike rate were both higher when he kept as opposed to just playing as a batsman. This showed his versatility and also his ability to switch between roles effortlessly. After an ODI against Australia at Nagpur on 14^th October 2007, Dravid was dropped from the ODI team and though he played 6 more ODIs in 2009, he was not part of India’s victorious 2011 World Cup team. In August 2011, Dravid received a surprising recall to India’s squad for the ODIs and T20I against England in England. He promptly announced his retirement from the shorter formats after that tour.

Dravid played for the Royal Challengers Bangalore in 2008, 2009 and 2010. Later on, he played for the Rajasthan Royals and led them to the final of the Champions League Twenty20 in September-October 2013.

Dravid had always carried himself with grace and dignity and has been involved in very few controversies in his career. In January 2004, he was found guilty of ball tampering during an ODI against Zimbabwe. The Match Referee, Clive Lloyd adjudged the application of an energy sweet to the ball as a deliberate offence though Dravid denied that this was his intent. Lloyd emphasized that television footage caught Dravid putting a lozenge on the ball during Zimbabwe’s innings. According to the ICC’s Code of Conduct, players are not allowed to apply substances to the ball other than sweat and saliva and Dravid was fined half his match fee. The Indian coach, John Wright came to Dravid’s defense stating that it was an innocent mistake. He claimed that Dravid was trying to apply saliva to the ball when part of a lozenge he had been chewing had stuck to the ball and Dravid had tried to wipe it off. ICC regulations prevented Dravid from commenting on the issue but Dravid’s captain, Sourav Ganguly also came to his defense stating that it was just an accident.

During India’s tour of Pakistan in 2003-04, Dravid was standing in as captain for Sourav Ganguly in the 1^st Test at Multan. He declared India’s 1^st innings closed at 675/5 declared leaving Sachin Tendulkar stranded on 194 not out with 16 overs left in the 2^nd day’s play. Tendulkar was disappointed as he felt that with so many overs left, he could have scored a double century. However, Dravid maintained that he had done so in the team’s interest.

He was also criticized by the owner of the Royal Challenger’s Bangalore, Vijay Mallya for not picking the team with the right balance after RCB finished 7^th out of 8 teams in the inaugural season of the IPL.

Following is the list of the National Honours won by Dravid

1998- Arjuna Award recipient for Achievements in cricket

2004- Padma Shri which is India’s 4^th highest civilian award

2013- Padma Bhushan which is India’s 3^rd highest civilian award

Other honours in Dravid’s career include

1999- CEAT international cricketer of the World Cup

2000- One of 5 cricketer’s selected as Wisden Cricketer of the year

2004- ICC Cricketer of the year which is the highest award in the ICC listings

2004- ICC Test player of the year, MTV Youth Icon of the Year for 2004

2006- Captain of ICC’s Test team

2011- NDTV Indian of the Year’s Lifetime Achievement Award with Dev Anand

2012- Don Bradman Award with Glenn McGrath

2015- Wisden India’s Highest Impact Test Batsman

2018- ICC Hall of Fame.

In December 2011, Dravid became the first non-Australian cricketer to deliver the Bradman Oration in Canberra.

Dravid is currently the overseas batting consultant for the Indian team and the Head Coach for the Under-19 and the ‘A’ teams. Most cricketers under his tutelage speak about how much they learn from him, not just about cricket but how to face life with equanimity and grace. Dravid will go down in Indian cricket folklore as one of India’s greatest ever batsmen and more importantly one of the finest gentlemen ever to play Test cricket. He proved that it was possible to be a good bloke and still be a successful cricketer at the highest level.

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