I wasn’t the most talented cricketer and lacked natural flair as compared to some of my teammates: Rahul Dravid

Making some honest confessions ‘The Wall’ Rahul Dravid said that he knew he wasn’t the most talented cricketer as he lacked the natural flair as compared to some of his teammates. “I knew that I wasn’t the most talented cricketer. I lacked natural flair when you compare me with my teammates. Things never came easy for me at school or junior level and the base started from there,” Dravid said, according to a report in The DNA.

With a lot of hard work and perseverance, Dravid went on to become India’s Mr Dependable for many years. The consistent performances and ability to put team before self paid dividends and he was finally appointed captain of India. While he wasn’t as flamboyant as Sourav Ganguly or MS Dhoni, Dravid had a decent stint as captain.

“When I had the opportunity, I took it up with a certain amount of energy. And over a period of time, I discovered it was gone. The 2007 World Cup loss probably played a big part in it and it took a big toll on me. I would wake up on some morning and say, ‘Oh god, another game of cricket.’ I had never felt that way about it. I like to believe I did a pretty decent job of it. If some of those results had gone better, I would have probably stayed in the job for a bit longer like Sourav or Dhoni,” he added.

On Wednesday afternoon, Dravid launched ‘Rahul Dravid; Timeless Steel; Collected writings on Indian cricket’s go-to man’. Sharing the dais with Harsha Bhogle and Sanjay Manjrekar, Dravid spoke on a number of topics including his childhood, career and future plans.

According to a report in The Tribune, Dravid, who took over as captain of India when Greg Chappell was the coach, said he always had felt in command of the team, contrary to the general belief that it was the controversial Aussie who ran the show.

"It was always my team. There is no doubt about that. Because Greg was a strong personality and because he himself was a great cricketer, because of the fanfare and publicity, at times it could come across as it was his team," said Dravid about.

"He can polarise a team with his strong personality. But I always thought it was my team. I never felt that he took a hard position when I wanted to do things differently," said the former captain.

"I thought he (Chappell) was a terrific man to talk batting with. He is the kind of a player who had grown up in a era of Australian cricket where they played the game and, at the end of the day, discussed the game. There was a lot that he could offer in terms of knowledge and experiences on how you could play the game," the 40-year-old former India star elaborated.