3 reasons why Rahul Dravid's ODI record is underrated

The current head coach of India's men's cricket team Rahul Dravid turned a year older and celebrated his 50th birthday on Wednesday, January 11. The former Indian batter is considered one of the best players the nation has ever produced.

Also known as 'The Wall', Dravid has mustered over 24200 runs in international matches, including 146 half-centuries and 48 hundreds. A perfect combination of composure, class and technique, he has undoubtedly defined an entire era of Indian cricket.

Though his contributions in Test cricket are widely acknowledged by one and all, he is far underrated in limited-overs cricket, and that’s where a lot of cricket pundits undermine his efforts.

On the occasion of his 50th birthday, let's turn some pages of history and discuss the three reasons why Rahul Dravid's ODI record is underrated:

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#1 Rahul Dravid's stats are better than what fans perceive

With 10,889 international runs in 50-over cricket, Rahul Dravid is India's fourth-highest run-scorer in ODIs after Sachin Tendulkar (18426), Virat Kohli (12584) and Sourav Ganguly (11363). Overall, his 10,889 runs are the tenth-best on the all-time list.

He has also scored as many as 83 half-centuries (50 of which came in the winning cause) in his career, which is a no mean feat, with only Tendulkar (95), Sangakkara (93) and Jacques Kallis (84) having scored more than that.

Although his average of 39.16 isn't sky high, it is pretty much comparable to other great players like Brian Lara (40.08), Ricky Ponting (42.03), Inzamam Ul-Haq (39.5), Kumar Sangakkara (41.9) and Ganguly (41.02).

However, the common belief is that the runs he scored decreased the team's run rate, which is a wrongful conviction. His strike rate of 71.24 is still pretty much comparable to the great players of his time.

Even Sangakkara (78.8) and Mahela Jayawardene (78.9) scored at a similar strike rate until the twilight of their careers, when due to the advent of T20 cricket, scoring runs at a brisk rate became more of a necessity than a bliss.

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#2 He was probably the most versatile player of his generation

Rahul Dravid also kept wickets for India in white-ball cricket [Pic Credit: Getty Images]

Rahul Dravid was always the captain’s go-to-man. Need a wicket-keeper-batsman? Bank on Dravid. Need an opener? Dravid to the rescue. Stability down the order? Rahul Dravid's there! One could always bank on The Wall.

What made Dravid so special as an ODI player was his versatility. Even if scoring that many runs was a tremendous effort, the circumstances of his success were truly astonishing.

Dravid, by nature, was a top order batter, who’d rather prefer playing a long steady innings than have a short-burst lower down the order.

However, a proper team-man, he played in as many as eight different batting positions during his career. Just for comparison, playing at five or six, Tendulkar scored 945 runs at an average of 30.4 while Ganguly averaged 26 and 7.6 batting at five and six. But Dravid amassed 3,301 and 2,459 runs at an average of 36.3 and 43.9 at four and five, respectively.

Apart from this, in order to improve the team's combination, Rahul Dravid also donned the wicket-keeper's role. He was competent enough at that job to do it 73 times. In those 73 games he didn't allow his batting to suffer, scoring 2300 runs at more than 44 per dismissal. Among wicketkeepers who've scored more than 2000 runs, only MS Dhoni has a higher average for India.

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#3 Has one of the best averages in ODI World Cups

Rahul Dravid of India in action during the 2003 World Cup [Pic Credit: Getty Images]

While Indian players, including Tendulkar, Virender Sehwag and Virat Kohli, are often talked about for their contributions at the ODI World Cups, Rahul Dravid's overall World Cup record was splendid as well.

Despite his last World Cup campaign ending in bitter disappointment in 2007, the Indore-born scored 860 runs in 21 innings across three editions of the mega ICC tournament.

Dravid averaged a handsome 61.4 in the World Cups, which is the fifth-best-ever in tournament history among batters who have scored more than 750 runs.

Perhaps he was never as gifted an athlete as Tendulkar was, he never had the flamboyance of Brian Lara; but his sheer determination, grit and impeccable work ethic made Dravid into who he was, and that was his true gift.