I must confess I have been a Rahul ’’The Wall’’ Dravid fan even before he made it to the national team. I have followed his fortunes ever since he made it big in the Karnataka team. Also I am not going to back this opinion with statistics....so I am not going to mention the number of centuries or ducks or any such stuff.
In my opinion Dravid is the ’’most valuable’’ batsman in the Indian cricket team as far as test matches on foreign pitches are concerned...even better than Sachin Tendulkar if I may say so.
Tendulkar ofcourse is a genius and the best batsman in the world when u look at cricket as a whole - Test matches and ODI put together, home and away.As far as home series in India are concerned everyone in the top 6 of the Indian test team batting order, even Laxman, Ganguly and whichever 2 openers are playing(even Debang Gandhi and Vikram Rathore), are good I suppose. I mean you don’t need major footwork to get runs on flat tracks where the new ball hardly bounces above the knee and the job of a bowler in general, and fast bowlers in particular is to boost the average of inept Indian batsmen.I don’t want to waste my word limit writing about all that.
Dravid’s batting is based on an excellent technique - very copybook - a good knowledge of where his offstump is, a very strong backfoot play and handsome horizontal bat shots...aah how simple it seems..but as we have seen..all simple things are not easily attainable. His strokeplay on the legside is very good as well. All this is common knowledge to any avid follower of cricket in India..which means every citizen of India knows this :)
What is also common knowledge is the fact that Dravid is a great team man and a thinking cricketer.He is a very determined character and focussed individual. At the time of writing this review Dravid is playing in the ODI team as a wicketkeeper-batsman. I really can’t think of one instance in world cricket where a top batsman has donned the gloves for the team’s sake...I know someone is already thinking of Kaluwitharana and Gilchrist..but they are wicketkeepers, batsmen later. I am talking abt specialist batsmen here and Dravid is likely to bat either 3 or 4 in the batting order in WC2003!
Now I come to the point where I wanna justify why Dravid is in my opinion India’s best batsman abroad, in tests for sure, and maybe in ODI too. The true test of any cricketer is his performance abroad.The same applies to teams also.
It is a fact that Rahul Dravid has been doing fabulously well as a batsman outside India..he is the batsman seen standing tall amidst the ruins that the Indian innings invariably is on foreign pitches. His skill has been tested on the pitches of SA, NZ, WI, Aus and invariably he has mastered the conditions and the bowling with authority..with the exception of Aus where he had a miserable series in 1999 where he was dismissed by Warne, Lee and McGrath twice each in three tests - there, I have a statistic for you folks.
His biggest problem so far had been his inability to score in ODI but he seems to have rectified that.He has not been a slouch with the bat in ODI either. He was the highest run-scorer of WC99. He seems to have freed up his strokeplay and his batting is now as good as it has ever been in ODIS though his running between wickets is terrible. He bowls as well and that is another way he has contributed when needed.
At home too he has some very good results to show in test matches - remember the 180 against Aus in Kolkata. Rahul Dravid is the player whose performance should play a key role in determining India’s prospects in WC2003 given that it will be played in the fast and bouncy pitches of SA.
And heres another piece of trivia for all the stats lover - Dravid holds the record for highest number of test innings before getting a duck - any surprises there?
Dravid has made his claim to greatness. India has another batting great to join the ranks of Indian greats led by the two little masters, Gavaskar and Tendulkar