#2 Rahul Dravid (1996 World Cup)
Rahul Dravid can be best simplified as a wolf who lived for the pack. He was one of the greatest batsmen that India ever produced. But the 1996 World Cup on home soil was a wake-up call for the then young Dravid who had just started his international career. He was included in the 20 probables but was left out when the final team was made official.
Dravid once revealed that he was didn’t expect to be selected for the World Cup and was equally motivated to work even harder for the Ranji matches at the time of the World Cup. He was the captain of Karnataka at that time and returned to his state team after not getting selected in Mohammad Azharuddin's final squad.
A magazine once asked Dravid about the 1996 omission to which he replied, "What could I have done? Cry loudly? Leave cricket? I quickly calculated that I'm getting four Ranji matches before team selection for the next England tour. I told myself not playing the World Cup means you need four centuries in those four matches. I did that."
This story is yet another glorious example of the perseverance of Indian cricket's Dark Knight.
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