Matt Prior collected the throw from the boundary fielder. Andrew Strauss the English captain made some adjustments in the field. Ian Bell at the bat-pad position stood still with his hands on the hips. And in between all this, a man waved his bat to his team in the pavilion for a fantastic innings. Rahul Dravid had just scored his 34th Test Century, equaling the likes of Sunil Gavaskar and Brian Lara.
Rahul Dravid has never enjoyed the God following that Sachin Tendulkar does, nor does he have the Razzmatazz of M S Dhoni, nor does he have the frenzy following of a Kolkata fan for Sourav Ganguly. But these are things that have never got the better of him. In fact they have helped him to perform even better. For Dravid, it seems that if he has to prove a point to someone, it has to be himself more than anyone else.
It all began 16 years ago when Rahul Dravid got a classic 95 against England at Lords. But the thunder then belonged to Sourav Ganguly who went on to make 131. Both of them were in their debut tests. 16 years since, Dravid is still there in the Indian team playing a role that no one can and Ganguly has gone on to become a commentator.
Rahul Dravid has been India’s best Number 3 batsman ever. But for Dravid, 3 is just a number. One cannot count the number of times he has come out to bat in the first couple of overs itself. The Indian team has been on the edge ever since landing in England. Abhinav Mukund has looked promising at times but never delivered, Gautam Gambhir has not been able to do what was expected out of him and the result, no substantial opening partnership. This has left Dravid to face the new ball in almost every innings in the test series. But what is unbelievable is that while almost every Indian batsman has struggled to play the swinging ball, Dravid has stood tall. It’s quite amazing as to how Dravid is so much at ease and at home whenever he tours England. Surely, England is his second home.
The two centuries, one at Lords and the other at Trent Bridge have proved that the man is irreplaceable. Before arriving in England, Dravid had 32 centuries to his name and India had lost only once in all those matches. But unfortunately, the 2 centuries against England ended up in losing cause as the batsman found it difficult to find their feet and the bowlers struggled with their line and lengths. Had it not been for Dravid’s knock, the loss would have been huge and even more difficult for the World’s Number 1 Test Team to swallow.
Dravid has now made a ‘Comeback’ to the ODI’s. But it is more of ‘Coming back to Realization’ for the selectors. When nothing is going well for the Indian Team, the selectors have roped in Rahul Dravid for the ODI’s against England. It is almost certain that when the Indian team comes back home to play on the flat pitches where the ball does not bounce above waist height , Dravid will be shown the door again as the likes of Suresh Raina and Virat Kohli will make it to the team under the banner ‘We need to look into the future’. Dravid himself was surprised by this move and in a very diplomatic way announced that this would be his last ODI series and announced his retirement from ODI’s and T20’s. He said that he was privileged to be a part of the Indian ODI team, but having a young family back home made it important for him to spend time with his family and wanted to concentrate only on Test Matches. Dravid does not like the tag of being called ‘The Wall’, but truly it seems that the great man has always been and will always be India’s last line of Defense.
