How Rahul Dravid managed to convince Brad Hodge to become a finisher for Rajasthan Royals

Former Rajasthan Royals captain Rahul Dravid revealed how he managed to convince Brad Hodge to bat lower down the order for the Rajasthan Royals. The move made an immediate impact as Hodge became one of the best finishers in the IPL.

Rahul Dravid moved to the Rajasthan Royals from the Royal Challengers Bangalore before IPL 2011. There, he was offered the captaincy as well as mentorship by the Royals. Rahul Dravid's team finished sixth and seventh in the IPL 2011 and IPL 2012 respectively, and the former Indian captain decided that something needed to change.

Brad Hodge's record against fast bowling was really good: Rahul Dravid

Rajasthan Royals began buying smart instead of going for the star players, and one of those buys was Brad Hodge. The former Australian batsman had earlier played for teams like Kolkata Knight Riders and Kochi Tuskers Kerala. Hodge hadn't done too well while playing in the top-order in those teams but Rahul Dravid had a new role ready for him.

“One of the things we noticed was Brad Hodge... had a phenomenal T20I record in Australia and had probably played 5-6 IPLs, and had a very average or poor record in India. Once we looked at the data closely, we sort of realised why he was struggling in India," Rahul Dravid said.

"He was clearly a player who was very good against fast bowling, but wasn’t very good against, say, left-arm spin bowling and leg spin. But he had an incredible strength of being good against fast bowling,” Rahul Dravid further added.

Rahul Dravid took the help of statistics to understand that although Brad Hodge struggled against spinners, he had an excellent record against the fast bowlers. Thus, Rahul Dravid chose to unleash Hodge towards the death overs where he could play his natural counter-attacking game and unsettle the opposition.

“In a team like that, we told him, ‘You are the best bet in the last five overs and here’s the data to show why you have been unsuccessful in the IPL and what we can do to help you become successful’.” Rahul Dravid asserted.

The plan worked for the Royals as Hodge played a pivotal role in the Jaipur-based franchise reaching the playoffs in IPL 2013. Although he did not score as many runs as he would have had he batted higher up the order, Hodge scored with a strike rate of 140 and was a potent weapon for the Royals.