Rahul Dravid - The Man In The Sun
Rahul Dravid has lived under the shadow of his contemporaries – this notion has been in circulation for years and especially gained most of its steam after Dravid retired.
But is it true? Yes, in part.
Dravid didn't have the magnificence that Tendulkar had nor did he have the buttery elegance of Ganguly or the wristy poise of Laxman or the bludgeoning prowess of Sehwag. He wasn't blessed by godly skills in batsmanship or with explosive crowd-pleasing batsmanship.
He often had to toil and persevere for his runs while his fellow greats brought them up with ease. He wasn't a player, unlike Tendulkar, who a layman would spend his hard earned money on to go to the ground and watch. But he accumulated the runs, all the same; and because he didn't do so with the ferocity and authority that Tendulkar or Sehwag did, he was considered to be under their shadow. Destined, in some people's eyes, to have every glorious stride that he took to be smudged by Tendulkar's gigantic footmarks.
However, that's not the entire truth of Dravid's career.
He did have his moments in the sun and those moments have gone down in India's cricketing history as classics.
When Dravid stole the spotlight
Who can forget him square-cutting Stuart McGill for a boundary to win the historic Adelaide test. Then that taking off of the cap and that slight leap in the air while kissing the emblem. It was Dravid's moment. His moment in the sun.
Who can forget that grind at Rawalpindi? That ten-hour vigil, overcoming poor form and criticism which paved the way for another historic test win for India and, more importantly, a historic series win for India. That too was Dravid's moment in the sun.
Then there is the battle of Kingston. Where Dravid stood out as the only batsman among both the sides to have almost a mystical control of batting on a demonic pitch. The Caribbean sun was as bright as it ever was and Dravid basked in it.
And then, there is his greatest series– the 2011 tour of England.
He went there as the oldest player in world cricket and with a team that was dancing to the swing of the English conditions. Things were tough for the team and for the batsmen, even Tendulkar struggled to get going. It was the ideal scenario for Dravid to show his class, and he did.
Three centuries and the man-of-the-series award speaks for itself. But just like the entirety of Dravid's career, it wasn't the evident headline-making statistics that made that English summer special.
It was again the toil, the resilience, the willingness to do what the team needed him to do and the absolute denial to surrender before a bullying pace attack that made that tour special. It made the entire cricketing world stand up and salute the man, it gave him his greatest moment in the sun.
In all these instances and in many more, like in Hamilton in 1999 where he scored centuries in both innings of a test or at the Eden Gardens in 2005 where he repeated the feat and again scored centuries in both innings against Pakistan, or at Headingley in 2002 where he neutralized the swing completely and provided a belter for Tendulkar and Ganguly to whack the bowlers on, he had his moments in the sun.
Alternating moments in spotlight for India’s talented batsmen
Yes, there have been times when his efforts got overshadowed by someone else's brilliance.
Like at Taunton in the 1999 World Cup, where Dravid's beautiful 145 was pushed aside by Ganguly's majestic 183 or like at the Eden Gardens in that famous Kolkata Test, where Laxman's surreal 281 took the wind away from Dravid's, equally invaluable, 180.
But then cricket is a team game and in a team that had a middle order such as the one India had, with over eighty-eight thousand international runs between them, it was pretty natural that their moments in the sun would alternate.
Dravid, however, never craved for the warmth. He was happy to remain in the cold and quietly do whatever task was at hand without making a fuss about it.
It has been a rule of history that while it remembers warriors, it reveres martyrs; and even though Dravid was never quite a martyr – he came out triumphantly alive of most of the battles that he went into– he would have happily been one if his team needed it. He was and could have been anything the team wanted him to be and it is this dedication and attitude that has permanently placed him in the sun.
To say that Rahul Dravid lived in the shadow of anyone would be an injustice, most of all, to the man himself.