Rahul Dravid: The man who was always sidelined in ODIs

After the India-Zimbabwe One dayer in World cup 1999, I was watching Sunil Gavaskar giving his expert comments about India’s possible qualification for the Super Six Stage. India, by that time, had lost first two of its matches, played against South Africa and Zimbabwe which prompted the ever outspoken Gavaskar to say that “Heart says India will qualify but Mind says India will not.” The equation, by that time, was very simple. India needed to win all their remaining three matches to have any chance of making it to the next stage.

It was under this context India took the field in its very next match which was against Kenya. Rahul Dravid joined the crease with Sachin Tendulkar, who was still grieving his father’s death. It was all run feast then and Dravid made a fantastic 110 runs to help India reach more than a formidable score, piling up an excellent partnership with Sachin, which in the end proved too much for Kenya to chase.

The next match was not against any weaker opponent, not by any stretch of the imagination. India had to play against one of their own neighbors – Sri Lanka – who were also the defending champions. The match was in Taunton where the ball did all sorts of things. The ball was moving both ways and the weather assisted swinging deliveries, adding doubts in the minds of the batsmen. In came India’s Mr.Reliable – Rahul Dravid – and the scenario soon began to change. It was then we realized why Dravid was so good overseas.

He scripted one of the finest innings that day, first by negating the swing with his front foot play and then by putting Vaas and Co to the sword. His partner at the other end, Sourav Ganguly, started his innings in a rusty manner but thereafter, seeing his partner, he too gained confidence and top scored the innings with an astonishing 183 runs. Later at the man-of-the-match presentation, Ganguly himself admitted that it was Dravid’s batting which made the difference. India scored over 370 runs at the end of the innings and by that time Dravid had become the first Indian batsman to have scored back-to-back centuries in the World Cup.

Eventually, India reached the super six stage after having won their final encounter in the league stage which was against England. Dravid finished as the highest scorer in that World Cup with an aggregate of 400-plus runs. It was “The Wall” all the way, which was the reason for India evading the disgrace of a premature elimination. But on both those occasions which I mentioned, be it Dravid’s partnership with Tendulkar or with Ganguly, it was his partner who hogged the limelight. Though Dravid started it all for his team in most of the matches, it was Sachin and Ganguly who usually put up a spectacular show at the end, thereby keeping Dravid at bay.

I just happened to read the statistics of the leading run-getters in ODI cricket during the first ODI match which took place between Indian and Sri Lanka last Saturday in the Micromax Cup. I was stunned to see Dravid occupying seventh position in the list. When you talk of a man who had not been playing ODIs since last five years or so, (apart from a brief stint he had in England during the middle of last year) still occupying a place in top 10 run-scorers in ODIs, it tells you how good a player he had been in ODIs. But there are many cricket fans, who, even now, are found riding on a prejudicial opinion that he had not been an useful player in ODIs, by conveniently overlooking the statistics and the quality of the player.

The two innings which I mentioned in this article at the start, are like a tip of an iceberg. There are many glorious innings which he has played in ODIs and to get them all mentioned in a small article, is not at all possible. First of all, Dravid learnt to play cricket in an orthodox manner which did give him certain hiccups to start with while playing ODIs, where muscle power was the important prerequisite. But then, Dravid, the fighter that he was, made certain adjustments to his game which helped him in keeping the score board ticking by ones and twos every alternative delivery, if not every single delivery. But he never relied on big hitting which was the reason why the present generation of cricket fans snubbed him while drawing the characteristics of a good one day player. And yet, the former No.3 batsman for India has crafted some iconic innings in his career like the one he played against West Indies in Canada, the century which he scored in Auckland against New Zealand, the 80-plus innings which he scored in Sharjah against an attack led by Shoaid Akhtar and so on.

In fact, even now Dravid has the second fastest fifty for India and is placed only next to Ajit Agarkar. But all said and done, certain people still fail to recognize the way he has batted in ODIs and always disregard him as a player suited for limited overs matches. To let them know the actual facts of what Dravid has been for India and also to prevent them from spreading false propaganda, even inadvertently, here are a few of my observations of the great man which could change their perceptions.

1. Dravid – The teacher:

We are aware of the proverb which says, “teachers are like candles who burn themselves to light others”. Teachers are those with the help of whom students elevate themselves into positions such as those of engineers, doctors, etc. But the teachers themselves, who do the thankless job of maintaining order in the classrooms and instill lessons among students, stay at the same job, earning ordinary salaries. Dravid, I feel, was like a teacher. In testing conditions, when others struggled, like in overseas Tests, it was always he who, with the help of his impeccable technique and footwork, scored runs confidently, thereby paving the way for his team-mates to understand how to add to their score. But in the end, all we saw was the players who had learnt the art of batting from the other end surpassing him, not only in getting runs, but also in stealing the show. Like I said before, Dravid’s blitzkrieg of an innings at Taunton in 1999 World cup match against Sri Lanka came to nothing because it was Ganguly who actually stole the show, though it was the man from Bangalore who started to entertain at the beginning.

2. Dravid – Someone who would run in the position of 2 or 3 in a 4×100 m relay team:

In a 4 x 100 relay running, people always remember the exploits of the first and the last member of a team. The first member of a team gives the lead, the second and third members of the team maintain it and eventually it is the last member who crosses the finish line. Dravid, in ODIs, was someone who could be compared to the second or third member of a relay team. Mostly representing India at the No.3 position which has always been a critical place for any team, Dravid needed to be circumspect to prevent his team from collapsing. So whatever start the openers gave, he always tried to maintain it rather than trying to overhaul it. He never tried anything which was not within his limitations and was always himself on the cricket field. So whatever he contributed by protecting the wickets, standing on one side holding on to the ground, was left unnoticed. Instead, it was always been those who gave a good start to the team’s cause and the ones who finished the innings in style that were given appreciation.

3. Dravid – A pawn in a chess board:

In a chess board, not many would realize the importance of a pawn as much as they would do for the knights, rooks, queen and bishops. Dravid was always like a pawn whose importance one would not feel unless the team started to look down the barrel. Just like a pawn whose power a chess player would come to know at the end when he required a queen to be exchanged in lieu of it, Dravid’s batting used to bail his team out when all his other mates started walking to the pavilion. During the Natwest ODI series against England, this was very much evident. He played till the end superbly, which guarded the youngsters like Yuvraj and Kaif and helped them to play the innings of their style freely. Eventually, he took rest and the youngsters won the matches for their team, not once but on more than one occasion. As usual, the credit went to the youngsters and the gentleman batsman hardly received any pat for his batting.

4. Dravid – Like an engine in a Formula 1 race:

In a sport like Formula one, as much as the driver’s skill is important, so is the engine of the car which he drives. But we always eulogize the skills of the driver and not the capacity of the engine. So was the case with Dravid, who always built his team’s innings, on which the other players who played around him drove on, and yet he never got credited for pacing the innings of the game. It was always those who played around him and did cameos that were given accolades and Dravid never got recognized for whatever he did.

Dravid did the thankless job throughout his career of being a team man. He always sacrificed his own self for the team’s cause. He never repented for it but continued to fight for his team till he retired. If there was ever a player who had nothing but his team’s interests totally in his mind, be it playing Tests or ODIs, it had to be Rahul Dravid. Dravid was more than a useful player in ODIs, and those who followed his career in the last sixteen years would never turn a blind eye towards acknowledging his batting prowess.