Legacy starts, an era ends: All Hail the Great Dravid

Rahul Dravid announced his retirement from Test Cricket. He had already announced his retirement from the other forms of cricket after his surprise recall in the Indian squad in England. He played the only international T-20 in that series followed by his last one-day series.

Everyone including Dravid knew that his one-day career was over before the series started, but everyone also knew that he still has a lot to deliver in the Test matches. He was the highest run-scorer for India in the Tests against England and was the only batsman to cross the three figure mark -- he achieved the feat thrice!

From the innings that he played in Lords in 1996 to the last innings that he played in Adelaide, Dravid has always delivered what the team asked from him. Even his retirement came at a suitable time as India does not have any Test matches in the near future and Dravid knew that his time was over. Dravid unlike others did not wait for a farewell Test match in which he would get a standing ovation and a ride on fellow mate’s shoulders. He announced it in a press conference and said that he would have been a bit selfish if he would have waited for a grand Farwell.

He ended his career with more than 23 thousand international runs; he is only behind Sachin Tendulkar in terms of Test runs and has 48 international hundreds to his name. Anyone who understands cricket would know that Dravid was not done, he would have been a force in the Test matches but, one should understand that all good thing comes to an end. There were a lot of talks about the retirement of the seniors and the retirement of Dravid may give some breathing space to the other seniors.

One word that defines Dravid’s game is selfless. From the moment he started till the finish, he has never put himself in front of his team. Whatever was asked from him he tried to deliver, more often than not he succeeded in those. When the other batsman declined to open the innings for India, he took the lead and open. It is known to the world that Sachin Tendulkar, VVS Laxman and Rahul Dravid did not favor opening. But, in the end whenever the team ran out of the option, it was Dravid who took the charge.

When Sourav Ganguly asked Dravid to keep wickets so that he can play seven batsmen, Dravid obliged. The move seemed to work as India reached the finals of the 2003 World Cup.

From the batsmen who cannot play in one-day cricket because of his low strike-rate he became the batsmen on which India relied on in every format of the game. He played a number of match winning knocks both in Test and in ODI’s.

Dravid also captained India, under his captaincy India won away Test series in England and in West Indies. He was criticized for India’s debacle in the 2007 World Cup, but people should remember that in the must-win game with Sri Lanka it was Dravid who played a sole hand and was fighting till the end. But, as he has done in past he moved away from the captaincy and hence not giving the fans an option to criticize him.

Dravid was the highest run-score in 2011 in Tests in which he scored five Test centuries. He played brilliantly and stood tall when other batsmen were falling. He got his name on the honors board of Lords and accomplished what he missed 16 years ago.  

Dravid has played for 16 years and there will be questions asked that he could have played for some more time. Getting bowled six times out of eights in the recently concluded Australia series did give people opportunity to ask questions about his form and his reflexes, but that does not prove that he was down and out.

Replacing, who was inarguably one of the best number three batsmen that the world saw, will be a tough for India. Some of the all-time best batsmen like Don Bradman and Ricky Ponting played in the position which Dravid played for India and all those batsmen will agree that the man from Bangalore was no less to them. 


By Gaurav Jha