A special tribute to Rahul Dravid
Everything comes to an end, so did Rahul Dravid's glorious career as Dravid bid farewell to international cricket six years ago. No more will we ever get to witness such a great character on cricket field whose very presence itself was a sight to behold. Very few batsmen ever in the history of beautiful sport possessed a greater character and exhibited such a sound temperament.
Rahul Dravid always reminds me of a military commander displaying ice-cool nerves in the war, especially when his army is facing imminent defeat. Dravid was literally an impregnable wall; his tenacity was simply phenomenal. From the bouncy Australian tracks and the seaming English surfaces to the subcontinent turning tracks, Rahul Dravid was the ultimate master. The amount of concentration he revealed always reminds me of Lord Gautam Buddha meditating under a tree with utter assiduousness.
Technically, Dravid was the arguably one of the best, if not the best batsman of his era and played a pivotal role in the upliftment of Indian cricket. Dravid's defence was watertight and he often wore down the best bowling attacks like a boulderstone; his grammar, displayed by his timing, footwork, and strokeplay, was near to perfection, which resembled a programmed machine. In addition, Rahul Dravid had an element of wristwork in his batting and in many ways, merged the style of iconic Indian cricketers Sunil Gavaskar and Gundappa Vishwanath.
Rahul Dravid started his career by scoring masterly 95 and 84 in his first two innings in Test cricket in England, in 1996. However, Rahul Dravid's Test average declined to the 30s by the beginning of 1997, although he got a very few matches to play in that short period of time, before scoring a magnificent ton in South Africa. For some time, he could hardly convert his fifties into hundreds. However, Dravid's average steadily increased to 52.59 by the end of the year 1997.
Rahul Dravid converted his fifty into a hundred against Zimbabwe in Harare. From there on, he went to become the leading run scorer in the 1999 Cricket World Cup. From 1999 to 2000, he had another setback, as he went through 16 innings without a single score of fifty or more, which slightly affected his career average, which took a slight dip from 50.91 in 1998 to 49.96 in 1999. Nevertheless, he revived his earlier sparkle by scoring a brilliant double century against Zimbabwe and his average increased from 49.96 to 53.58 by the end of 2000.
Then, Rahul Dravid scaled an epic peak partnership scoring a match-winning 180 at Kolkata, sharing a record 376 run partnership with VVS Laxman thus enabling India to turn a certain defeat into one of the most famous victories. This was the defining moment of Rahul Dravid's batting ability. His 376-run partnership with VVS Laxman is still considered as the greatest match-winning partnership in the history of test cricket.
Statistically, the best phase of Rahul Dravid's career as a specialist batsman was on the Indian tour to Australia 2003-04 where he mastered the pace-assisting and bouncy Australian tracks and with VVS Laxman turned a virtually lost game into a win after sharing an epic 303 run stand, scoring 233.
In fact, Dravid steered India home with an unbeaten 72 in second innings. Rahul Dravid was exhibiting a mastery like Alexander 'The Great' annexing a new territory and displayed the skill of a doctor, curing a patient considered incurable. 'The Wall' exhibited every shot in the textbook in his international career.
Rarely in cricket history have we seen a batsman who is so determined and focused on achieving his goal. Dravid mimicked a commander leading his battalion to victory from the brink of a certain defeat. Overall in that Australian Tests, Rahul Dravid aggregated a massive 619 runs, which is a record for an Indian batsman on the Australian soil.
Following that tour, Rahul Dravid scored a superb 270 at Rawalpindi which helped India secure their first series win in Pakistan. Dravid tackled Shoaib Akhtar's fierce pace with characteristic mastery and batted for a record 740 minutes.
In early 2006 on one of the most difficult surfaces at Trinidad, Rahul Dravid adopted brilliantly scoring two fifties which helped India win the Test, ultimately securing a series win. Similarly, five years later in Trinidad on a similar surface, Rahul Dravid scored a match-winning 112 securing yet another series win for India.
In India's tour to England 2002, Rahul Dravid scored a classic 148 at Leeds to win the Test match for India. In conditions favouring seam bowling, he aggregated 602 runs in the overall series, averaging 100.33.
However, for me, the best batting display of Rahul Dravid was on the 2011 tour of England. I consider it as the best batting display by an Indian batsman in England in Test cricket. When every batsman failed in the difficult conditions, Rahul Dravid registered three centuries to his name. This remarkable feat reminds me of the great George Headley playing for the weak West Indies side in the 1930s and 40s, making a huge contribution to the team with the bat. Rahul Dravid had a fine technique against the moving ball, which made him successful in those conditions.
In 2002 in England, Rahul Dravid scored three back-to-back centuries. Between 2002 and 2004, he hit four double centuries in just 15 tests. At his peak, from 2001 to 2006, Rahul Dravid was arguably the best batsman in the world accumulating a total of 5727 runs at a superb average of 62.25.
In 2006, Rahul Dravid set the record for the highest overseas Test average in wins for India. For me, Rahul Dravid wins a spot in the top 10 batsmen of all time. In the situation of crisis, I would vote Rahul Dravid as the best batsman of the modern era, even ahead of Allan Border, Javed Miandad, Ken Barrington, Ian Chappell, Steve Waugh, and Jacques Kallis.
As per an analysis conducted in ESPN, Rahul Dravid is amongst the top 5 batsmen since 1969 and amongst the 12 best ever. Rahul Dravid lacked the flamboyance of Brian Lara, Sachin Tendulkar or Ricky Ponting but when the chips were down, he outscored all of them.
Above all, Rahul Dravid is one of the modest and most graceful human beings ever to have stepped on the cricket field. Thank you Rahul Dravid for your immense contribution to Indian cricket.