3 values of Rahul Dravid every aspiring Indian cricketer should imbibe
There's more to Rahul Dravid than meets the eye. Not only did 'The Wall' hold fort for India in crunch situations and scored heavily, but he is also an inspiration to budding cricketers.
The numbers speak for themselves — 23,794 runs in first-class cricket, 10889 runs in ODIs, and 13288 runs in Tests established Dravid as one of the most decorated Indian batters of all time and one of the vital members of the country's 'Fab 4'.
Those who labeled the Karnataka batter as one-dimensional were proved wrong at every step of his career by Dravid.
While he never had the flamboyance of Sachin Tendulkar or the fluency of VVS Laxman, his methodical and gritty approach to batting made him one of the finest batters of his generation.
There's a lot from Rahul Dravid that every aspiring Indian cricketer can learn and incorporate into their games. These are some of the qualities that made him the legend he became over the course of his career. We take a look at three of those traits.
#1 Rahul Dravid's willingness to adapt
This was perhaps the biggest change Rahul Dravid had to make in order to cement himself as one of India's premier batters. He retooled his entire game to slot into the middle order and build his game as a finisher.
It wasn't an easy task or pleasing to the eye to see Dravid swing and heave at times, but he did it anyway, with the 2003 World Cup showcasing his ability to take the game deeper and close out matches.
Dravid's willingness to adapt for the sake of the team and even tweak his approach accordingly is a lesson for young cricketers. It tells them that they need to be flexible and willing to add more facets to their existing skill-set.
#2 Immense focus
The manner in which Dravid drilled the ball and the bowler into submission, irrespective of whether it had vicious pace or swing or spin, was almost yogic. His technique comprised watching the ball till the very end and playing the shot it warranted.
In all honesty, Rahul Dravid was never an athlete. While he did keep himself fit, his game was built around countless hours of focusing on fine-tuning his already orthodox batsmanship. The end result was a truckload of runs he scored across formats.
#3 Being the ultimate team man
You can count on Dravid to be the ultimate team man. He donned the wicket-keeping gloves for a rather lengthy period as India looked for the right team balance.
He was also there to roll his arm over if the situation demanded it, and had his small but valuable successes with the ball, for example when he dismissed Pakistan opener Saeed Anwar on 95. Dravid was rightly called Mr Dependable and this was one of the instances where he proved he was willing to do what the team needed of him.