5 underrated ODI knocks of Rahul Dravid
Arguably one of India’s all-time greats, Rahul Sharad Dravid was the epitome of grit and determination, which helped him scale unprecedented heights in his long and illustrious career.
Especially in the longest format of the game, Dravid’s greatness was unmatched as he inspired India to many memorable victories both in and outside the country.
However, his remarkable achievements in the Tests have often overshadowed his ODI exploits.
But that cannot belittle the man’s impact in the format, in which he amassed 10889 runs at an average of 39.16. The only person, who has been involved in two 300-run partnerships in ODIs, played many incredible innings for the men in blue which largely remained unnoticed.
We tried to pick five such underrated ODI knocks of Rahul Dravid in which he proved his class. Everyone seems to remember the 145 or the 153 which he scored against Sri Lanka and New Zealand respectively, so we intentionally didn’t include them in the list and rather concentrated on finding the other invaluable knocks.
Here is the list.
5) 74 at Brisbane against Australia in 2004
India achieved a memorable ODI win over Australia in 2004 and one just cannot ignore Rahul Dravid’s contributions with the bat.
Dravid struck a well-made 74 off just 64 balls to provide the impetus that propelled India to a total of 303. Playing a typical ODI knock, Dravid ran well between the wickets and stitched an important partnership of 133 runs with VVS Laxman, who scored a ton in that game.
Amidst all the brouhaha over Laxman’s ton, everyone seemed to forget the fact Dravid’s strike rate of 115.62 was the highest amongst the batsmen (who played at least 10 balls) and that was critical to get the total past the psychological mark of 300.
India emerged victorious in that game and Dravid, like always, remained well behind the shadows.