Rahul Dravid - The Synonym of Selflessness

Cricket being a team game, the pride of representing one's country is the paramount honor and personal interests of players take a backfoot. But still there have been instances of games being dragged to take account of personal milestones, averages and other records . And then there is Rahul Dravid, titled the Wall- the Wall which was insurmountable, could withstand the bombardments and barrages of opponents and always stood tall and never allowed any thoughts of personal records to cross it when the team's interest was in question.

Rahul Dravid did an encore by rejecting the additional money offered to him and accepted the same amount as the other members of the coaching staff after the 2024 T20 World Cup - he did the same after the 2018 U-19 World Cup victory. In the present day, such acts are rare and probably finding someone else doing the same would be as difficult as finding an endangered species in the Amazon forests. Though the captain runs the show once a cricket game starts, the support staff play a very important role in forming strategies. Rohit Sharma has very openly appreciated and accepted Dravid's contribution and it later on emerged that it was Rohit who convinced him to stay back after the 2023 World cup final loss against Australia. Rohit even wrote a touching letter to Dravid.

Dravid's international career began in typical fashion at Lord's - his 95 was overshadowed by another debutant Sourav Ganguly's 131. Batting at number 7 and scoring this big is a tremendous achievement and he was labelled as a test specialist to begin with. Later on he became the backbone of Indian batting and between 2000-05, was the mainstay - at times even Sachin Tendulkar was second to Dravid because of various reasons such as his injury.

In the famous 2001 Calcutta test against Australia, Dravid batted with a bout of viral fever and was on drips. His 180 and match winning partnership with VVS Laxman helped India win the match and the series ultimately. He came back to field, something which others would not have done. He even padded up to keep for a while when Nayan Mongia was injured. Talking about his wicket keeping skills, Sourav Ganguly and the team management requested him to be the full time keeper so that it could open up a place for another all rounder. He was a safe keeper and his batting skills did not deteriorate at all.

Impeccable shot selection, solid defence with defiance and ability to counter swing were Dravid's fortes. The irony is that Rahul Dravid holds the joint record of being the second fastest Indian to 50 runs in one day matches. He was gradually shunted out of the One day team after a temporary slump when M S Dhoni was the captain. After Dravid's performances were the only notable ones against England in the 2011 four test loss, he was picked again in the one day team and immediately announced retirement from the format. His first & final T20 included a hat trick of sixes too.

Post retirement, he continued his involvement with Indian cricket - be it as the coach of the younger group or with the National Cricket Academy (NCA). he acted as the bridge between domestic and international cricket for long before Sourav Ganguly and BCCI convinced him to take charge of the senior national team. Though India narrowly missed the trophy several times, his tenure culminated with the T20 World Cup win. A fitting farewell to someone as astute as Dravid under whom India won in England and West Indies after a very long time, though India's group level exit in the 2007 ODI world cup was the low point in his career. Dravid at one point also stated that dropping catches was one of the reasons behind his decision to retire from tests too - he was a live wire in the slip cordon.

As Rahul Dravid's engagement with the senior team comes to an end, everyone will be hoping that his success stories with Indian cricket would continue in other ways and he will be a guiding force for budding talent.