Rahul Dravid - A tribute to his ODI exploits

(Focused primarily on his One-day Career, since his test innings is still on)

Last Friday, Rahul Sharad Dravid was playing his farewell ODI - emotional moment is it? I didn’t feel so, because his ODI career had effectively ended 4 years ago when he was dumped out of a Young Team India which started looking ahead and rightly so. Many are still angry on the selectors (that time it was Dilip Vengsarkar) but for me that looked a right move since Dravid was showing signs of slowing down and his participation in ODIs was allowing his impeccable test record to take a beating. He was very unwisely recalled for the Champions Trophy in 2009, dropped and recalled once again for the series against England. It’s a plainly ridiculous move and I have always believed Srikanth’s selection to be extremely similar to his batting - Cracker-jack.

The very first memory I have of Rahul Dravid was when he repeatedly used to churn out huge scores for Karnataka, in the early nineties. Those days “The Hindu” had a habit of publishing a detailed score-card of first class matches as well. Along with Dravid, I keely followed Amarjit Kaypee, MV Sridhar, KP Bhaskar and Santhosh Jedhe to name a few. Ironically, all these immensely talented cricketers got a raw deal from the selectors for reasons best known to the wise-men.


RD was someone whom I found to be possessing a tremendous appetite for runs and big scores coupled with loads of patience. For a while, I was waiting for him to be chosen to the Indian Team and his first call came after a disastrous sequence of actions by Nayan Mongia and Manoj Prabhakar - when they closed shop far too early in a one day chase against the WI and promptly got dropped. Dravid didn’t get a chance then, but all of us knew that his time was due to come shortly.

When he made his ODI debut (surprisingly ahead of his Test Debut) I was very tensed since I was someone who badly wanted him to make a mark and settle down into the Indian line-up (Somehow felt he was of high-quality). His start was traumatic, with a sequence of single digit scores against Lanka and Pakistan. He did have a dream start to his test career which paved the way for more luxury in the One day arena as well. But the actual turnaround took place in the Sahara Cup in 1996, when many struggled he - not for the first time - stood firm. He took his aggressive batting to the next level in early 1999 in the tour of Newzealand which invariably contributed to his stunning 1999 World Cup performance.


For a period of close to five years, Rahul Dravid displayed a remarkable sense of resilience - not new to him though - kept wickets regularly, been there in the middle order grafting for runs to rotate strike, held the innings together for the other flashy batsmen around him to express themselves and quietly doing anything you can ask from a player.

Now then, he has hung up his colored clothes - Being someone who has followed his career right from day one, I want to furnish some details about few of his best One-day knocks (not necessarily in chronological order), according to me. 

South Africa v India at Durban, Feb 13, 1997 - 84(94)

India were set a huge total to chase on a rain affected match and those days we almost never won matches away, especially in South Africa. Tendulkar started in whirlwind fashion and when he got out flicking to short fine-leg, the match was all but over. But Rahul Dravid with his steely resolve took it upon himself and even had the courage to lift the White Lightning over mid-wicket for a six. Donald started, Dravid was unmoved. India still went on to lose the match but on that day, we witnessed the arrival of Rahul Dravid, the One-day player.

Man of the Match - Rahul Dravid


 India v Pakistan at Chennai - May 21, 1997 - 107(116)

A match that is better remembered for Saeed Anwar’s then record 194, Rahul Dravid played a massive part in keeping us in the chase till the deep end, after the early departure of Sachin. Those days the Indo-Pak rivalry used to be at its greatest and since this was played to remember our 50 years of Independence, it was all the more sentimental. India once again lost the match, but the inside out extra cover drives played by Rahul on that day, are still remembered. This was the first of a dozen ODI centuries he would make.

Man of the Match - Saeed Anwar

Newzealand v India at Taupo - Jan 9, 1999 - 123(123)

Once again for a losing cause, but this innings went a long way in making Rahul Dravid a permanent member in Team India’s ODI plans. He was making a comeback on that day and took a while to settle down only to unleash a flurry of boundaries in the end. This gave him the confidence to graduate from being a grafter suited only to test matches, to someone who can be exciting in the shorter version too.

Man of the Match - Rahul Dravid

India v Pakistan at Centurion - Mar 1, 2003 - 44*(76)

You can’t think of anyone else apart from Sachin Tendulkar when you speak of this match. That day belonged to him for one of the truly memorable innings ever played internationally. But, when Sachin departed after inflicting just enough damage to Pakistan, we still needed close to 100 runs though at a more than nominal required rate. Rahul Dravid had Yuvraj for company and Dinesh Mongia to follow, but against Pakistan, big game, anything could have happened with a wicket or two. Dravid was calm in defence as always and played smart cricket to allow Yuvraj Singh to take maximum strike and slowly but surely inched towards the target with ease. It was fitting that RD had to hit the winning runs, it will be more fitting if all of us to remember what a crucial hand he played on that March evening.

Man of the Match - Should I say?


India v Zimbabwe at Columbo - Sep 14, 2002 - 71(81)

The other day I was watching the highlights of this match against Zimbabwe (I remember watching it LIVE as well), Dravid was tiring every minute (we were batting first) had a sweat absorber wrapped around his neck, mind you we were playing in Srilanka. Who stole the limelight? It was none other than Mohd Kaif, the man to accommodate whom, Dravid reluctantly but very graciously chose to don the keeping gloves for the second time. It was a very important innings since India had already lost the top 4 wickets for 80 odd on the board. The authority and fight shown by RD paved way for an outstanding innings from Mohd Kaif to follow his 87* in the Natwest Finals.

Man of the Match: Mohammed Kaif

Pakistan v India at Lahore - Mar 21, 2004 - 76*(92)

India’s first visit to our neighbors for 15 years began with the ODI series. Pakistan were 2-1 up and were holding firm control in the 4th, when they had India 5 down and on the mat. With over 130 runs required, it was Mohd Kaif once again who proved quiet a handful under-pressure and along with Dravid, calmly guided India to what was an important win. We won the deciding One dayer as well and that set the tone for one of the most memorable test series India were ever involved in. Many times I feel sad for Mohd Kaif, for he was similar to Dravid in more ways than one. Though less talented than Rahul, Kaif  was a real hard-worker, was someone who took immense care about his own body and rarely increased an ounce with success - traits that he shares with the man from Karnataka.

Man of the Match - Inzamam-Ul-Haq
 
England v India at Bristol - Aug 24, 2007 - 92*(63)

An innings which you wouldn’t normally associate Rahul Dravid with. In general he would have been content with a 92 ball 63, but what happened on this day was the vice versa. Tendulkar once again set a beautiful platform and Rahul Dravid entered the crease in the 32nd over and almost got a hundred for himself. “The Wall” played a remarkably uncharacteristic innings to lead India to an almost unassailable total - England fell less than 10 runs short of it and that indicates the significance of this innings. He scored a fifty in the next match and for the next 10 matches that followed, Rahul couldn’t make a substantial contribution and was dropped.

Man of the Match - Rahul Dravid

I’m 100% certain that I would have missed many a gem here, the 145 against SL in his full-wkt keeping debut, the hundred he scored along with Sachin when the Master returned from his Dad's funeral, same story when Tendulkar made 186* in Hyderabad and many more. But Rahul has played more than 300 matches and scored close to 12000 ODI runs, my job wasn’t made any easier.

On the fielding front, Rahul Dravid has been one of the best India has produced but as his career marched towards an end, his standards dropped as well. Someone who began with two good catches in his debut and continued to be one of the sharpest on the field, the sitter he dropped in his final appearance belies logic.

What he could have lived without - He had an absolutely stain-free ODI career except for an instance of ball-tampering against Zimbabwe in 2004. But knowing Dravid as a man of discipline, integrity and honesty, I can stick my neck out and announce that he wouldn’t have realized what he was doing until he was pulled up by the referee the next day.

Lowest Moment: No second thoughts about it, Rahul Dravid's lowest ODI moment would be the 2007 WC, where he was leading the team and we failed to quality for the Super Six. We did compensate for the humiliating loss, with wins in the 2007 T20 WC and 2011 ODI WC - Rahul wasn't part of either.

Thanks Rahul for the memories, thanks for being the selfless man you are, thanks for your wicket keeping duties, thanks for taking all the baseless ridicules towards your limited over credentials, thanks for always putting the team ahead of yourself, thanks for being Rahul. We want you to continue playing Test Cricket until you get into your early 40’s, I’m sure you can. Indian Cricket needs you to - the just concluded Test Series is an indication of that.

Pictures and Stats courtesy: CRICINFO, CRICKETARCHIVE.COM