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Former Indian opener Gautam Gambhir believes that Rahul Dravid has had a bigger impact on Indian cricket than Sourav Ganguly. He added that the current head of the National Cricket Academy (NCA) is a perfect role model, who did everything that was asked of him as a player.
Gautam Gambhir and VVS Laxman shared their thoughts on the glorious careers of Rahul Dravid and Sourav Ganguly on the Star Sports show Cricket Connected.
Speaking of Sourav Ganguly, Laxman stated that the former India captain had a great fan following all over the world. He said:
"When you are Bengali and you have Bengalis all over the world. And Sourav was very very special for all the Bengalis, for all the Indians. So, wherever we went people used to extend their hospitality."
When asked if Rahul Dravid was always a cricket nerd, Laxman recollected their first meeting at the under-19 level. He recalled:
"As far as Rahul is concerned, right from the first time I played against him in an under-19 match between Karnataka and Hyderabad, he got a brilliant hundred. And since that time he has become a true friend of mine and he is also someone I always looked up to. The kind of confidence and focus he showed in that innings continued and only got better."
Gautam Gambhir then added that Rahul Dravid had a great reign as captain and did not get enough credit for his accomplishments:
"I made my ODI debut under Sourav Ganguly, I made my Test debut under Rahul Dravid. It is so unfortunate that we do not give enough credit for his captaincy as well. We only talk about Sourav Ganguly or MS Dhoni and now about Virat Kohli. But Rahul Dravid has been a fabulous captain for India."
He further opined that Rahul Dravid was a perfect role model who gave everything for the team and is probably the most underrated Indian cricketer and captain in the game's history.
"Even his records, he is probably the most underrated cricketer and probably the most underrated leader as well. We won in England, we won in West Indies and we won 14 or 15 games on the trot. But look at Rahul Dravid as a cricketer. You asked him to open the batting in Test cricket and he did that. He kept wickets for India, he batted as a finisher. He did everything Indian cricket or a captain asked him to do and that is the kind of role models you want."
Gautam Gambhir claimed that although Sourav Ganguly had a bigger impact in the ODI format, Rahul Dravid has had a larger overall impact on Indian cricket- one which he considered to be on par with Sachin Tendulkar.
"For me, I think he has had a bigger impact. Sourav Ganguly has always had a bigger impact in white ball cricket because of his flamboyance but Rahul Dravid overall in Indian cricket had a much bigger impact than probably anyone. You can actually match his impact to someone like Sachin Tendulkar as well. He played under the shadow of Sachin Tendulkar all his life, but impact wise probably the same."
Gautam Gambhir on Rahul Dravid's role as a mentor
Gautam Gambhir added that young Indian cricketers were fortunate to have been mentored by someone like Rahul Dravid, who earlier coached the under-19 and India A teams and is now the head of the NCA.
"When I was on the India A tour, the kind of coaches we had, not taking anything away from them but I would have loved to have had Rahul Dravid who understood a lot what it takes to be a successful international cricketer, as a cricketer who captained India."
He then reiterated that Rahul Dravid's role in Indian cricket is much bigger than the BCCI president as it is the performance on the field of play that matters the most.
"Rahul Dravid's role to make Indian cricket successful is probably much higher than any administrator. I am not going to take BCCI president's role as any less but cricket is all about cricketers. How Indian team does on the cricket field will decide how successful cricket is in India."
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