Why India needs another Dravid in test cricket?
Rahul Dravid was one of the best cricketers India had and also one of the most underrated. His best came out when Team India needed him the most. If he had been born in any other era or played in a team other than Sachin or Ganguly he would have been more famous. He is the dark horse of Indian Cricket.
Indian cricket misses him more than Tendulkar or Sehwag since their respective retirements. Currently, the Indian team has a lot of stroke-makers like Dhawan, K L Rahul, and others. They have one of the best batsman of the modern game in Virat Kohli but they don't have a Dravid fashioned player who stays strong when the chips are down.
He was a treat to watch when batting at his usual position of #3. He didn't mind opening the batting when India needed him and took the opportunity with both hands. He was a great team player.
The most important aspect of Dravid's batting was that he liked to spend time on the crease. This can be ascertained from his stats which show that he spent 735.8 hours at the crease.
This was more than any batsmen who have played the game. He also holds the record of the most balls faced by a player during his career. He used to wear down the opposition bowlers with his solid defense which allowed the batsmen who came him to score freely. He cherished handling the difficult phase of the game.
Steve Waugh once advised his bowlers, "Try to take his wicket within the first 15 minutes, if you can't then only try to take his remaining wickets." This comment shows how much price Dravid put on his wicket and made it difficult for the bowlers to take his wicket.
Dravid had a tough work ethic. He knew that he was not as gifted as other great batsmen of his era, so he put in a lot of hard work to overcome his shortcomings. Every run scored by him is an example of sheer work that he had put in mastering his craft. He never used to shy away from putting in extra hours, even when others had left.
He had a phenomenal average of 65.70 in tests won overseas, more than Sachin, Gavaskar, and other legendary Indian batters. He led India to memorable test victories in Headingly, Adelaide, Kingston, and Rawalpindi.
He possesses the most overseas man of the match awards of any Indian batsmen with eight of them. He had a balls per dismissal record of 123.06 which shows that he was a partnership man. He has a record of being involved in most hundred partnerships with 88 of them.
Brian Charles Lara once said, "If I had to put anyone to bat for my life, it'd be either Kallis or Dravid".
Dravid is truly a legend of this game, and we need someone with his grit, spirit and resolve to bail the Indian team out of the batting crisis that they are going through. Solidity in the middle-order is something that any world-class team can't do without.