Rahul Dravid :- A True Inspiration

Here is an incident about Rahul Dravid which shows you exactly how he was as a person. He truly described the saying "THERE IS NO SHORTCUT TO SUCCESS."

1996 January. Bengaluru. Conditioning camp of Indian cricket team. Azhar's team for ODI world cup will be announced later that day. Punjab opener Vikram Rathore was hopeful about getting a chance. After the team announcement, I went to Rathore's room at night to note his reactions. He was devastated for not making the cut. He made the following remarks: "I can't imagine they left me out. How can they? How can I forget this pain?" He later added, "My roommate(Rahul Dravid) is peculiar, he had no reaction at all. No disappointment, nothing. He(Rahul Dravid) heard the team, said: 'Oh, I'm not in it' and went straight out with his kits."

Fifteen years later, one night at a restaurant in Kolkata, Rahul Dravid  would explain his silent exit from that Bengaluru hotel : "What could I have done? Cry loudly? Leave cricket? I quickly calculated (that) I'm getting four Ranji matches before team selection for the next England tour. I told myself not playing the world cup means you need four centuries in those four matches. (I) did that."

-- Goutam Bhattacharya, an expert from Anandabazar Patrika

And we all know what happened next, Dravid was selected in the test squad for five match series against England in England. Selection of Rahul Dravid in the test squad for England series was the outcome of his consistently scored heavy runs in previous domestic seasons. "Where there is a will there is a way."

 June 20,1996. Second Test match of a five match series against England. Dravid, who didn't got a chance in first test despite scoring a fifty in each against the Gloucestershire and the Leicestershire county in the tour games was finally going to make his debut in second test due to the ankle injury to senior batsman Sanjay Manjrekar.

In his first match itself he has shown the sign of becoming a successful Test cricket, But who would have thought that this young man is going to be the finest no. 3 batsman ever! Coming at no. 7 he scored a majestic 95 on the classis track of lords, missing the century on debut and getting his name on lords' honour board by just 5 runs!!

He made his Test debut on 20th june,1996 and the rest is the History!!! 

RAHUL DRAVID IS NOT ALL ABOUT THE NUMBERS!

"RAHUL DRAVID IS NOT ALL ABOUT THE NUMBERS"

          Rahul Dravid took a single off the first  ball of a new spell by Glenn McGrath and watched from the non-striker’s  end as Mohammad Kaif battled for survival over the next five deliveries. 

It was October of 2004. The city of oranges was in full bloom,  celebrating the end of a hot summer and licking its lips at the prospect  of a citrusy winter. At the VCA stadium, India,  led by Dravid, was trying to save the “final frontier” on an unusually  green pitch from a marauding Australian team that had already won the  first Test in Bangalore.

 Tottering at 75-4 in reply to Australia’s first innings 398, the hosts  had reached a point on the second day of the match where the Kaif-Dravid  partnership was the only thing that could, perhaps, save them from  imminent defeat. 

At the end of that rare mid-afternoon over from McGrath, the batsmen met  for a conference in the middle of the pitch. “He’s bowling out of his  skin,” Dravid said, and Kaif, having faced five unplayable deliveries,  smiled back in agreement. 

“It’s going to be tough,” he continued, “but we have a chance if we can see off this spell. Otherwise it’s all over.” 

Kaif said he would do his best, but Dravid told him that he had a better  plan: For the rest of McGrath’s spell, Kaif would stay at the other end  against Warne, while Dravid would take on the might of the Australian  fast bowler playing his 100th Test. 

This, Dravid hastily explained, was not a reflection on Kaif’s calibre  especially since he had been in good form over the last couple of  months. It was just something that he, being the more experienced  player, needed to do at this pivotal moment of the match. 

“It’s settled then,” Dravid said, waving away any polite opposition that  Kaif may have had. “No more singles until McGrath is in the attack.  Forget about the scoreboard. You stay put at your end. I will see him  off from this side.” 

Dravid scampered across to the business end off the second ball of Warne’s next over and resolutely marked his guard. 

Over the next 18 deliveries, McGrath and Dravid were engaged in a kind  of battle that defines Test cricket. McGrath tried everything to entice  Dravid into playing a false stroke, to get him to fish outside off, to  york him, and to take him by surprise with a short ball. Dravid,  stubborn and determined, soaked in the pressure, lunging forward to pat  away deliveries directed at his stumps, and refusing to go near anything  more than an inch outside off. 

“It was a spell of bowling that is best watched from the non-striker’s  end,” Kaif said later. “I can’t think of any other batsman who would’ve  volunteered, let alone insisted, to do what Rahul was doing.”

 India scored six runs in the next five overs (a two and a four off Kaif’s bat  against Warne) as Dravid cocooned himself from temptation. In the  commentary box, the experts criticised him for going into a shell, for  being over-defensive, for appearing to be clueless against quality  bowling on a seaming track. They didn’t realise that Dravid had assessed  the situation and chosen to face the firing squad alone. 

This cat-and-mouse game went on for the next twenty minutes. Two more  overs, Dravid told Kaif at the end of McGrath’s third, and we’ll be home  dry. “He’s starting to get tired now.” 

Kaif patted out another maiden, and Dravid negotiated the first five  deliveries of McGrath’s next over without mishap. But McGrath, by now  aware of what was going on, got a ball to leave Dravid ever so slightly,  and kiss the edge before flying straight to Warne in the slip cordon. 

The scoreboard recorded an innocuous 140-ball, 173-minute 21 against Dravid’s name. India lost the match two days later. But this numbers can not describe the kind of innings it was! 

In the end, it was a small, almost insignificant knock: a tick in the  failures column for a batsman who has succeeded against fiery spells all  over the world. But it showed that he always, unfailingly, even during  his forgotten innings, put the team before himself. More than his  ability, or his records, it was this that made Rahul Dravid special.