Ever since his career began in 1996, Rahul Dravid has been called by various names, Mr Dependable, The Wall, The Rock of Gibraltar. And so on But he has almost always singularly been the “Go To Man” of Indian cricket. The recently concluded test series in England amply proves this thought .Despite India’s 0-4 drubbing at the hands of the English team, Rahul Dravid stood tall with 3 Test hundreds and a total aggregate of 463 runs in 6 innings with a batting average of above 75. The vital aspect about each of these tons is the situation and the manner in which these runs were scored. Throughout the test series, due to injuries to Sehwag and Gambhir, Dravid had to take up the mantle of opening the innings in some of these matches in seamer friendly conditions against the likes of Anderson ,Broad and Bresnon who proved to be more than a handful on their home turf.
Seeing the rich vane of form of Dravid the selectors decided to pick him for the subsequent 5 match one day series which must have come as a surprise for the self respecting man owing which he promptly decided to call it quits after the one day series as far one day cricket is concerned. Right throughout his career whenever the team has found itself in a quandary, Dravid has come to the fore and accepted the challenge whether it is wicket keeping in the One Dayers or opening in difficult situations in the Tests. Not even once has he shirked off the responsibility placed upon him by the team management even though it is no secret that he is weary of opening in tests . As a matter of fact he also did not enjoy keeping in one dayers.
There is one more crucial aspect that we ought not to forget and that is right throughout his career dravid has played under the shadows of his illustrious teammate Sachin Tendulkar who has been a much more charismatic player to watch than the much understated bangalorean. A thought comes to my mind that if Dravid would have been playing in a different era would he have got his rightful due?.Make no mistake about the fact that he sits amongst the pantheon of all time great batsmen cutting across different eras. He has scored more than 10000 runs in tests as well as one dayers .The word ‘great’ has been used too often but ask any player who has played with or against Dravid they will echo the same sentiment. Besides being a great cricketer and one of the nicest blokes going around, he is truly an icon for youngsters to look up to. One also notices some subtle changes which he has made to his footwork in recent years especially the trademark ‘back and across’ movement which is not seen any more. Though this leads him to search for deliveries outside off stump as was the case in South Africa in December 2010, the fact remains that he is still a very fine player and with this renewed vigor he looks good to play for a season or two his fitness not withstanding. At 39 he is not getting any younger but still has the passion and the will to fight it out in the middle. In this test series Dravid spent long hours on the field but still he played for longer durations out in the middle which is ample testimony to his fitness. This test series should be the second coming for Dravid who is in the evening of his career. Kudos for the selfless man because they don’t make em like him any more.
