There are few cricketers in Indian cricket, who have had as big an impact on Indian cricket as Rahul Dravid. On the field and off the field he has been a perfect gentleman, a guy young cricketers can look up to. In fact, the cricketing journey of Rahul Dravid offers some important lessons even to non cricket fans.
Dravid was inducted into the Indian team in 1996 and quickly established himself as a Test batsman. He was thought of as a batsman with compact technique and flawless defence and more suited for Test matches than the one dayers. Another aspect of his one day cricket which made him unbefitting for the shorter version of the game was his running between the wickets. Unsurprisingly, he was dropped from the one day squad. The fighter that he is, Rahul Dravid fought back into the one day team by ironing out the flaws. He still had the compact technique but along with it added some more shots to his arsenal which helped him score quickly. He dramatically improved his running between the wickets which not only allowed him to improve his strike rate, but also took off the pressure on him to go for big shots. The result – he ended up as the highest run getter in the 1999 world cup. To accept his omission from the ODI squad in true spirits, come back to the national team and be the highest run getter in the world cup shows the guy’s character.
Rahul Dravid has always put the team above self. From 2001 to 2005, Rahul Dravid was going through a dream run and was the number one batsman for India – both in test and one day cricket. In order to accommodate 7 batsmen and improve the team balance, the team management asked him to keep the wickets in ODIs. Being both batsman and wicketkeeper can be a challenging task for anyone – especially when the last time one kept wickets was at under-16 level. Also, as the number one batsman in the team, he could have easily declined to keep wickets. But again, keeping the team’s interest in mind, Dravid accepted the additional responsibility of wicket keeping and did it with distinction.
To be successful in international cricket over a longer period to time, one has to continuously keep on improving. Rahul Dravid is not known for his fielding, however, the effort he puts in to improve his fielding is commendable. Among the senior players, he is the only one who uses the sliding-stop technique to field the ball. Even the relatively younger players like Virendra Sehwag and Zaheer Khan can’t do it.
When compared to his teammates, Rahul Dravid is probably the least naturally talented of all. He doesn’t have the hand-eye coordination of Sehwag, the elegance of Saurav Ganguly and Yuvraj Singh, the wrists of VVS Laxman and the overflowing talent of Tendulkar. And yet, in the last decade and a half, along with Sachin, he has been the most successful of all the Indian batsmen. He has won more test matches for India than any other batsman – including Sachin. He is a perfect example of how hard work and dedication can take you places.
Rahul Dravid will always be remembered as a selfless and committed cricketer who played his heart out for India. If some of the other Indian players had his attitude, India would have been the number 1 team in the world long time ago.
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