When the going gets tough, bring back Rahul 'The WALL' Dravid !!!

	When the going gets tough, bring back Rahul Dravid © Getty Images Enlarge
Related Links News : Dravid makes surprise ODI comeback Audio/Video: 'Dravid's selection shows a bit of panic' - Manjrekar Players/Officials: Rahul Dravid Series/Tournaments: India tour of England Teams: India

Hey Rahul, some of these youngsters don't seem to fancy tough pitches, and those bouncers in the World Twenty20 in England were plain nasty. Do you mind playing ODIs in the South African pre-summer?

Hey Rahul, we know you were our second-highest run-getter in the matches you played on the comeback, but look at those flat pitches full of 400 runs, do you mind making way for the future of Indian cricket? Then again, we are sending an even worse message to the youngsters: that they are not good enough for the tough conditions.

Two years later, with Dravid well past his 38th birthday:

Hey Rahul, our strike bowler has pulled up sore, do you mind keeping wicket while the captain bowls a few overs?

Hey Rahul, one of our openers delayed his surgery so he could play IPL and is missing now, and the other opener got injured during the match. Do you mind opening the innings soon after you have finished keeping wicket?

Hey Rahul, these English conditions seem tough again. We know we are world champions in this format without you, but do you mind seeing us through this series?

Yes, we know we punted on an untested opener in the most important Test series of the year, but we don't trust one of the youngsters to face the semi-old white Kookaburra that does less than the red Duke, loses its shine earlier, and cannot be bounced over the shoulder more than once in an over.

Never mind that you might not make it to the XI, because we might need all three of Virat Kohli, Suresh Raina and Rohit Sharma to fill in the fifth bowler's quota anyway. Balanced squad has never been our forte, you know, otherwise how would Wriddhiman Saha have made his Test debut as a batsman? By the way, you could keep wicket again, freeing up the captain to bowl a few overs. Or do you fancy having a bowl yourself?

And just so that there are no hard feelings later, after this series, when Rajkot and Hyderabad are pregnant with the possibility of 400 runs and knee-high bounce, we might have to drop you again. But you know that already from how we didn't tell you what we expected of you the last time, and then left you out without a word on your future. You can't stand in the way of the future of Indian cricket, can you?

And we know you will show little sense of entitlement despite having scored close to 11,000 runs in the format. You won't moan in the press, there won't be any tantrums or disillusionment. Who knows two years down the line we might call you up for ODIs again? So keep hitting that gym, or whatever you do to stay in top condition.

Sidharth Monga is an assistant editor at ESPNcricinfo

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Rahul Dravid shows his greatness at Lord's!

Fifteen years ago he fell five runs short, but in 2011, with his team in big trouble, Rahul Dravid got his name on the Lord's honours board

July 23, 2011

	Rahul Dravid celebrated with real emotion as he finally registered a Lord's hundred © Getty Images Enlarge
Audio/Video: 'Challenge for us to fight back' - Dravid Players/Officials: Rahul Dravid Matches: England v India at Lord's Series/Tournaments: India tour of England Teams: England | India

(Courtesy: cricinfo.com) Outside the St John's Wood tube station this morning, touts were generously offering the day's ticket for 500 pounds, at roughly ten times the printed price, which was still 400 pounds less than what Michael Holding had heard they were selling at. Black marketeers always do brisk business around the Lord's Test, and tickets for all of India's Tests have been sold out, but the reason for today's mark-up was obvious: Sachin Tendulkar, chasing his hundredth hundred, was due to bat.

The crowds had to settle for only a cameo from the great man, but those who appreciate the true worth of Test cricket were treated to a batting masterclass from a man who has batted more than anyone else in Test cricket. Fifteen years after his debut at this ground, Rahul Dravid finally managed to erase the regret of falling short of a hundred by five runs, and became the first current Indian top-order batsman to have his name engraved on the "most talked-about honour board in world cricket."

Dravid, the most pragmatic and grounded of men, and a colossus of a cricketer in his own right, has never been fussed about conducting his career under Tendulkar's shadow. Rather than hankering after celebrity status, an inevitability for an Indian cricketer of reasonable pedigree, he has accepted it as a professional hazard.

As a new generation of brasher, flashier Indian cricketers has arrived to ride the Twenty20 wave, Dravid's stock has dipped among the marketeers, but he has had maturity and sense of humour to joke about his lack of endorsement contracts. He couldn't, however, have been as unconcerned about the relatively fallow run with the bat in recent years that has steadily dragged his average down to the more humdrum side of the fifties from a career high of nearly 58.

The runs hadn't dried up altogether but they had been coming laboriously even by his own standards, and even though he had scored the match-winning hundred on a tough pitch in Kingston last month, all his recent hundreds had come against lesser bowling attacks.

And his last tour to England had been his worst on these shores. Burdened by the cares of captaincy, he spent many fruitless stretches at the crease unable to move the scorecard, with a 96-ball 12 at The Oval capping his tour of misery as a batsman even though he had the pleasure of leading India to a first series win in England in 21 years. Speaking at the end of the day he admitted to periods of self-doubt and the awareness that he hadn't met his own exacting standards.

But with the match still in balance, and against what is arguably the best bowling attack in English conditions, he delivered an innings worthy of Dravid at his very best. It was an innings of skill and authority, of classy drives and stout defence, of dead certain footwork and sure judgment, and of unwavering application.

Apart from one chance he offered to the slips, he never looked in trouble despite the ball jagging around all day, both in the air and off the pitch. With advancing age, he has grown a bit more animated in celebrating his hundreds, and today, by running his 100th run with his bat aloft, and punching the air with vigour after it was completed, he showed how much this hundred meant to him. Later he would rank it among his most special innings in the last four or five years.

"To miss out in my first Test here was something that stayed with me a little bit," he said, "It's not that if I hadn't got this hundred it would be the end of the world. There are lots of grounds where I haven't got a hundred. But it was there in the back of my mind and I probably had one more go at it. For it to come in this situation feels really good. There are some great names on that honours board. It's just nice to be on it."

The most refreshing part of the innings was the way it began. His first scoring shot was cover-driven off a full swinging ball from James Anderson. It wasn't a half volley, and Dravid, already forward, waited for the ball to pass his front pad to drive the ball with the open face of the bat to the left of the cover fielder. Abhinav Mukund, who looks a better player with each Test, outscored him with nifty clips off his hips, and then Tendulkar glided on with a couple of sensational back-foot drives, but Dravid was soon matching him in finding the boundary, and, with three of them in one over against Anderson, he even overtook him.

Much that is written about Dravid's classical orthodoxy is slightly ill-founded. He has the temperament of a classical Test batsman, but his technique is his own. He is wristy and dexterous, guides the ball willingly and securely with an angled bat, plays the forward defence in the most ornamental manner, and the cover drive with the hands well in front of his pads. He is prone to move into prolonged periods of self-denial, but here, with bowlers willing to pitch the ball up, he played his most fluent and flowing innings in recent years.

To the very end, he remained focused on getting India past the follow-on target. "It helped me that 274 was the number on my mind," he said. Praveen Kumar came and swung a few, but there was never panic or haste even after he had departed. Dravid's last 20 runs contained three serene and crisp boundaries, and the on-drive off Chris Tremlett that took him in to the nineties bore the stamp that is Dravid's very own.

He was asked if the last couple of hundreds have added a season of two to his career. "That's the one thing I've learned from Sachin. He doesn't talk about the future, he just focusses on the present. He's been a great motivation for me. I just want to focus on what we need to do next in this game."

Dravid will allow himself to savour the day, but he would not allow it to distract from the main challenge. There is a Test to be saved. The good news for India is that their trench-war specialist has hit peak form early. When Dravid scores a hundred, India rarely lose. In fact, it has happened only once in 153 Tests.

"Hopefully, that's a happy omen."

Rahul 'The WALL' Dravid's flame still burns : Harsha Bhogle

Rahul Dravid's passion for and approach to cricket haven't changed in the last decade and a half. He is still intense, patient, and willing to work hard to prepare for each game

Harsha Bhogle

June 24, 2011

	Rahul Dravid has always relished, and thrived on, being challenged on the cricket field © Associated Press
Related Links Bulletin : Dravid masterclass puts India on top News : There's always a pressure to score runs - Dravid Players/Officials: Rahul Dravid Matches: West Indies v India at Kingston Series/Tournaments: India tour of West Indies Teams: India

It is already 15 years since a simple, elegant, studious and very likeable young man walked out to bat for India at Lord's. That was an appropriate setting. Rahul Dravid is neatly turned out, plays the game correctly, likes the traditions associated with the game and is respectful of them. It is not difficult to see why the English would like him. In 1996, though, he was significantly more humble and courteous than those I seemed to run into at the ground.

Not much has changed since then. He is still as intense as ever, still unlikely to sport the ponytail he rejected in one of his earliest commercials, still deeply enamoured by the idea of playing for India, still very out of place in the Kingfisher jingle. That intensity is worth studying, though, for Dravid knows no other way of playing the game. Like a good student would, he assimilates data, works out what he is going to do, and focuses as intently as anyone who has played the game. Patience has been a childhood friend, and it has allowed him to retain the intensity. Impatience is the hallmark of youth, and while Dravid has been young in years, he has always sported a maturity that belies them.

There have been times when some of us feared that intensity; when we wondered if the fire within would singe him, and whether he just needed to get his mind off the game and relax a bit. We feared every ball would become a battle to be fought, a storm to be withstood. But as he often told me in those days, it was the same method that had brought him so many runs. It was the person he was; the challenge he relished that defined the way he played the game. He knew, as he repeatedly said, that he wasn't a Sehwag, that he had to bat longer to score the same number of runs; that therefore, he needed to focus strongly and prepare well for a game. It was a debate he was willing to get into but it was a solution he had to find himself. As it turns out, the way he knew best has so far brought him 12,215 runs in Test cricket, and that number tends to seal most debates.

We need to let that number roll off our tongues a bit more often because it is a colossal figure. It is not a number you dream of achieving, because it is too distant. It is a product of extraordinary ability and dedication. In 1994 his father would call to request, for class runs in the family, if he could get a video of his son playing in domestic cricket. Dravid's father can be very proud of the way his son has graced the game and scored runs.

There are other reasons too; reasons apart from the tenacity, the fire, the cover drive and the catches at slip. In the 16 years that I have had the pleasure of knowing him, I have rarely encountered ego or anger. Maybe the dressing room, a place I stay away from, has seen the odd outburst, but ego and anger are like cholesterol and sugar in the blood; eventually they will get you.

In a way it is good that Dravid, VVS Laxman and Sachin Tendulkar have had an extended run, for there must be a gradual handing over of the baton. Virat Kohli, Cheteshwar Pujara, Suresh Raina or Rohit Sharma must know what it takes to seek greatness, and maybe then achieve it. They will have to fight their own battles but a live example would help. That is why I am particularly delighted that Dravid plays in the Ranji Trophy whenever he can. He has often spoken of hanging on to every word that people like Gundappa Viswanath spoke to youngsters in Karnataka. And now that the time has come to carry forward that tradition, he is doing his bit. Cricket could do with more Johnny Appleseeds.

I don't know how much longer he will play for India, for by the time he plays at Lord's next, he will be closer to 39 than 38. But what I do know is that whenever an all-time Indian XI gets picked, Nos. 1, 3 and 4 will be written simultaneously.

Harsha Bhogle is a commentator, television presenter and writer. His Twitter feed is here

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