Rahul Dravid:
The wall , Rock , Backbone of Indian batting line-up.
Completed Half Century today..
Following piece was written - as a tribute to his outstanding contribution - on his retirement:
Thank you Rahul - Jammy -Dravid, for the memories
Test match without Rahul Dravid! Sorry I can't imagine it. Fortunately we don`t have to for next few months. By the time hopefully we will be able to overcome the inevitable i.e. permanent unavailability of one of the main link of team India`s backbone, the cricketing world`s most famous batting line up, for last two decades. Imagining Rahul in Bangalore’s Big Bazaar with shopping bags carrying grocery items or waiting to receive his son at school gate, like rest all of us, have done some time or other. No way jammy! You were born to fight it out in the middle with the red cherry, amongst bright sunshine in super whites, build totals for team India along with Sachin, VVS, Sehawag and earlier Saurav. Your solidity at the top of the order allowed the other, more extravagant, stroke players in the Indian team to express themselves freely, knowing that you would hold your end up for long periods without losing concentration.
Sunshine or not, fast and furious bowlers steaming in on fast and bouncy pitches overseas, overcast conditions on chilling days in England or New Zealand helping swing bowlers. We knew if everybody else fails there was a `Rock` solid Rahul Dravid to take us through. Immaculate batting technique. Wearing down the opposition bowlers with his patience session after session. More from the batting school of Gavaskar and Vengasarkar, this always believed in theory: Give the first session to the opposition bowlers, get your eye in then rest day can be yours. The game of cricket is the battle between bat and ball. It is about who loses patience first; that determines the winner. Rahul Dravid was the master at staying patient for long, long periods of time. He won the battles more often. Dravid was so patient; he made bowler bowl to him. Because he did not give his wicket away easily, bowlers had to be incredibly disciplined against him in line and length to get the better of him. He was someone who valued his wicket, someone against whom bowlers knew they were in for a real hard task to knock him over. He could judge whether to play or leave the ball, especially early in his innings. He knew where his off stump was; that is an important asset to have for a top-order batsman. Dravid always had a simple game plan and he stuck to it. It comes back to patience: he had the patience to grind out long innings and wait for the right ball to hit. He had his specific shots that he wanted to play, and he would wait for the bowler to pitch in the area where he was comfortable playing an attacking shot. That made him very difficult to get out, for any bowler the world over. The special thing about Dravid was that when he got a bad ball, he would be waiting for it and he had the ability to put it away. He did not miss those opportunities to score. That is sometimes the difference between a very good player and a great player: the ability to score when you get the chance to score. And that is one of the reasons he averaged mid-50s consistently in Test cricket. And finished up as the second-highest run-getter, with 13,288 runs next only to Sachin Tendulkar. Dravid's ability to spend long periods at the crease obviously meant his contribution to the team was much more than just the runs he scored. Most consistent and successful no.3 batsman.
Team man to the core. Kept wickets in ODIs that enabled better team balance and India reached world cup finals after 20 years in South Africa 2003, under Saurav Ganguly. Lead India to Test series win in England, in 2007, after 1986, for which even Sachin should be grateful, as the same was missing from his illustrious career. Got always overshadowed by other stars` performances like legendary Sachin, Artistic VVS, fighting Saurav, flamboyant Veeru and doggy Gambhir recently. But the same has happened with yesteryear stars world over - Dilip Vengsarkar, who got ignored earlier due to Vishwanath and then legendary Sunil Gavaskar. Mohinder Amarnath, Ravi Shastri and Kapil Dev in between stealing limelight. But colonel Dilip went on to play for few years after Gavaskar`s retirement. West Indian highly talented Gordon Greenidge`s batting achievements were always overshadowed by Legendary master blaster Vivian Richards, to name a few.
Dravid seems to be the first casualty of the disastrous Aussie tour. Only last year he had scored five test hundreds. The decision to retire was not sudden, he said; the period of contemplation had lasted over a year as he assessed his game series after series.
From the statistics point of view, the most significant aspect of Dravid's Test career was that the runs he scored contributed significantly to India's wins, mainly overseas. Overall, Dravid scored 5131 runs in Test wins, next only to Tendulkar's 5594. However, in overseas Test wins, he was often India's main man, even more than Tendulkar. India won 15 Tests abroad during Dravid's career (excluding matches in Bangladesh and Zimbabwe), and in those games he scored 1577 runs at 65.70 - both aggregate and average is higher than Tendulkar's. Not surprisingly, Dravid was Man of the Match in the last overseas Test win that India achieved during his career - his second-innings 112 and match tally of 152 were largely instrumental in India winning a low-scoring game in Kingston by 63 runs, in June 2011. In all, eight of his 11 Man-of-the-Match awards came in overseas Tests, and five in overseas wins, including unforgettable performances at Headingley (2002), Adelaide (2003), Rawalpindi (2004) and Kingston (2006). Tendulkar won only five out of his 14 Man-of-the-Match awards overseas, and only one in a win (excluding Bangladesh). In fact, no Indian has won as many match awards overseas as Dravid has. (This award wasn't always around during the days of some of India's earlier players.) A minor low in the otherwise splendid run was - able to score only one test century each in South Africa and Australia. Who can forget the epic 376 runs partnership with VVS Laxman in 2001 Kolkata test ,after following on , which stopped the Australian juggernaut of nonstop 16 test match wins, was run out as last batsman on 180.This not only turned a test but the series completely on its head. This one of the most sensational turnaround in Test cricket history started John Wright–Saurav Ganguly partnership`s golden days ahead.
Less talked about aspect is his fitness .With a meticulous disciplined fitness regime he went on to play more than 90 test matches on trot. One of the most reliable and safe slip fielder–no wonder he is sitting pretty at the top with 210 test match catches.
Well Rahul we too are `sad but proud` about your decision. Vijay Merchant had said: One should retire when people ask why? And not why not? In your case murmur had already started, as not getting any younger at 39. Very modest and great ambassador for Indian Cricket. Most unsung hero along with Anil Kumble for last couple of decades. Reliable test match winner in all conditions. Build a `wall` brick by brick with lots of patience and perseverance. Whenever we think about Rahul Dravid, the one video immediately flashes out of memory that of kissing cap after scoring the winning shot in 2003 Adelaide test, with frustrated Australian wicketkeeper Adam Gilchrist in the background. With 72 not out followed by first innings classic 233. No wonder he was the man of the match. All good things must come to an end. This was a better thing to have happened for Indian sport, even excellent at times. Will definitely miss you. Thanks for all those cherished winning moments - we are going to savor for the lifetime.
- Vivek Ketkar
-10th March 2012
Stats summary:
Tests - 13,288 runs @ 52.31
ODIs - 10,889 runs @ 39.16
T20Is - 31 runs @ 31.00
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