Dravid
The interesting thing is that I am guilty of this too.
What ?
*Begin at the beginning*
Gases and dust swirled around each other…
yeah, I know. Horrible joke.
Back to my point.
A man called Rahul Dravid.
A great player. Possibly one of the greatest known to India.
Now.
He debuted ages ago.. I am randomly guessing atleast 10 years.
And yet, now, when he is at the pinnacle of an amazing career, people are wondering what they would have done without him in the first place.
He was always India’s “Lord of the Technique”. Which made him boring. Unlike others, he just was not the type to go out there and show the crowd real dominance.
But the people who know, the opposing players, have always prayed that he lose his touch when he strides out there.
Why ?
A random example - Aus vs Ind - 2001. Venue: Wankhede Stadium.
Dravid scores 40. of 200 deliveries.
I was one of those who told anyone who would listen that this was crap.
Why ?
Not coz he could done anything different at the time. He was never a Tendulkar, Afridi, or a Hayden. Or even a Jayasuriya.
He was the man who could have done so much better. Plus he got out crappily after such concentration.
Now it occurs to me that that probably happened coz the rest of the team refused to play. And roundly gave the game quite nicely to Australia.
As he’s shown since then, the Indian team really builds itself from Dravid’s play. Even Tendulkar can never be expected to tamely play 200 deliveries, when the team is collapsing.
And, I don’t know anyone who would volunteer to be ‘keeper. And then bat even better.
Now this is a legend who will never be sung about. Until after he finally leaves.
And even then, only after a couple of series losses, due to crappy batting.
S
