Rahul Dravid: The perfect gentleman

The loss of Rajasthan Royals in the final of CLT20 brought a flood of posts on social media about how Rahul Dravid ended his career without winning anything big. No IPLs, no World Cups, no CLT20, about how he always lived in the shadows of likes of Sachin Tendulkar and Sourav Ganguly. But I think rather than being sad on what he didn’t achieve, we should be proud of what he actually did.

If you look at his records, they would be considered exceptional by any standards. He has scored 13288 runs in his test career with an average of 52.31. He has 36 hundreds to his name. These records maybe not be as glorious as those of Sachin but that doesn’t make him a lesser player. Rahul Dravid was often the foundation on which middle order batsmen formed their innings. Out of the total runs made by the Indian team in test matches in which Dravid played, about 36% were scored with him on the pitch. When players like Sachin or Ganguly scored a 200 or 250, he was often holding the other end with an extremely patient 100 or 150.

It would be an insult to Dravid if I don’t mention arguably the best innings of his career. Well, who can forget that famous win against Australia at Eden Gardens or the innings of 281 by VVS Laxman but not many remember his 376 run partnership with Dravid who himself scored 180 in almost twice as many balls.

There were innumerable times when he drove the innings after the failure of opening partnership. He was the go-to man of Indian team in times of crisis or as we call in Hindi ‘sankatmochak’. He scored three tons in England in 2011 when Indian batting was struggling to avoid a follow-on or an innings defeat most of the times. When the team needed him to play ODIs on the same tour, surprisingly he was selected in the ODI squad after almost two years.  He played because the team needed him and retired from ODIs immediately after the series. Long back, when team needed a wicketkeeper, he donned the gloves and gave the team stability.

The highlight of his career was undoubtedly test cricket where his hard fought and patient innings became a trademark and gave him the name ‘The Wall’ but his contributions in the shorter format can’t be overlooked. In ODIs, he scored 10889 runs with an average of 39.16 and a strike rate of 71.24. He has 12 hundreds to his name.

The final of CLT20 was dubbed as a clash between Sachin Tendulkar and Rahul Dravid, and how aptly it ended, adhering to the script of their lives; Sachin Tendulkar basking in all the glory, while Rahul Dravid pushed to the background, amidst the shadows, with no spotlight, but abundant respect.

He was bowled attempting an ugly slog sweep in the final of CLT20; these beautiful lines probably summarize his career.

“In a career that is marked by grace, style and beautiful batsmanship, it’s a slog that’s ended Rahul Dravid’s career. But once again, it was what was needed.”

– Harsha Bhogle.

The retirement of Rahul Dravid from competitive cricket brought tears in millions of eyes. He is a man worthy of our respect even without his cricket records because there is no greater gentleman in the ‘game of gentlemen’. If you fuse that with his cricketing skills and records, he is one of the brightest stars our country has produced