Technical soundness and stability is one of the important factors of a batsman’s success. Rahul Dravid has both of them. In the last two years, the presence of Rahul Dravid was felt deeply in the Indian team. He is the most dependable batsman in the Indian team. A wall without cracks! A crack in this wall means a crack in the whole Indian batting line up.
He is the pillar on which the whole Indian team stands especially in test matches. He has done considerable job in One Days also. He may not be the quickest run maker or a power hitter of the ball. The ability to clear the ropes may be missing. But still this man is a must in the Indian team. This shows the class of Rahul Dravid.
His foot work and wrist work is just amazing and his fielding is good too. He is an inspiration for the new batsmen. He deserved more than what he has got. He was not able to convert a lot of his fifties into hundreds. A lot of ninetees are a part of his cricketing career. He is the part of three 300+ partnerships, one with VVS Laxman in tests, one with Saurav Ganguly and another one with Sachin Tendulkar in One Days.
He takes singles and builds partnerships when needs. His defence is solid as rock and his leg glances and square cuts are excellent. His comparitively slow batting compared to the other players in the team made him out of the team for a few months, but he was able to come back with extra power.
He has improved very much in a few recent series. His average in Australia was below twenty when he went there. He improved it to nearly fifty. In the pitches where the greatest batsmen failed, Rahul Dravid made his presence felt with some stunning performances.
In the 1999 World Cup he made 461 runs from eight matches with two centuries and two half centuries to become the top run scorer of the series. In the 2003 World Cup too, his performance was great. When he went to play for Kent in County Cricket, he made 1221 runs at a batting average of 55.5.
He is the ideal ’one down’ batsman for India as he can read the situation very well and play according to it. He has done a brilliant job as a wicket keeper also for the team. He was better than any usual wicket keeper in the Indian team. He certainly is not a wicket keeper batsman like Adam Gilchrist and Mark Boucher, but a batsman wicket keeper. He maintained the balance of the Indian side by putting the gloves on.
He has done considerable job as a vice captain. He got a lot of blame for declaring the innings against Pakistan in the recent series when Sachin Tendulkar was too close to a double century. But the decision had a major part in India’s victory. He has received a lot of awards and honors for his performances. More is expected from him by the Indian cricket lovers as time passes.
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