Rahul Dravid turns 49: A look at Four Major Wins under The Wall’s captaincy
Rahul Dravid, one of the India's most prolific players of all time, turns 49 today.
While India plays the third and final Test at Newlands Stadium in Cape Town, the Indian team will also celebrate the birthday of their head coach, Rahul Dravid. The Wall of Indian Cricket turns 49 today. Dravid has been India's man of crisis. Jammy has always put his hands up whenever India needed someone to step up.
‘No’ doesn’t exist in Rahul Dravid’s dictionary
India needed someone to bat at the number three position in Test cricket. Dravid said yes and held that position like glue. Sourav Ganguly asked The Wall to be the wicketkeeper for the balance of the One Day International side and he said yes for the sake of the team.
Dravid even served as the Director of the National Cricket Academy (NCA) in Bengaluru. There he had created the players for tomorrow. Coach Dravid was with the Under-19 team and India A squad. Now he is the head coach of the Indian Cricket Team after the current Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) president, Sourav Ganguly, asked him to serve the national side.
The Wall earnt his name through sheer hard work
Rahul Dravid is called “The Wall” because his defence was impossible to break. He used to burn like a sun to shine at the international level. Dravid made the number three spot his own in Test cricket. He scored over 13,000 runs in the red-ball format. Considered “slow” as an ODI player, he broke that stereotype and smashed the fastest fifty against New Zealand in the fifty-over format.
The Wall has also scored more than 10,000 runs in the ODI format and he even captained the Indian team in Tests and the fifty-over format. Dravid had a successful stint as the skipper of the national side. But he is still judged for one bad performance which came in the 2007 ICC World Cup in the West Indies.
The former Indian skipper was an underrated captain. He scored 1,736 runs from 25 Test matches with four centuries to his name when he captained the side. Dravid had captained the Test team in 25 games and India won eight of them while losing six. In fifty overs cricket, Dravid led India in 79 matches. India won 42 games and lost 33 matches. Dravid scored 2,558 runs during his ODI captaincy stint.
On his 49th birthday, we take a look at his famous wins as the captain of Team India in the Test format and One Day International matches:
Test series win in England in 2007
India's tour of England in 2007 was a successful campaign. The Indian team won the Test series on that tour under Dravid and that was also the last time India won a Test series in England.
India saved the first Test at Lord’s thanks to MS Dhoni’s cameo of unbeaten 59 runs and the rain gods which showered at the right time. India was undone by the England bowlers in both innings. Still, the visitors managed to draw that Test.
India bounced back strongly in Trent Bridge. Zaheer Khan toppled the England batters apart and then it was a mighty impressive performance with the bat in both the innings which allowed India to take complete control of that Test. Despite the ton from their captain Michael Vaughan, England couldn't save that Test and India won comfortably in the end.
India scored a mammoth 664 runs in the last Test because of the maiden Test ton from Anil Kumble and five fifties from other batters at The Oval. England’s reply wasn’t a great one as they were bowled out for just 345 runs in their 1st innings. India had a chance of enforcing a follow-on. But India batted again as Dravid wanted to give his bowlers a good amount of rest. India had set a target of 500 runs for the hosts to level the series. Despite being 11 for three in the second innings, the visitors got a decent score because of Ganguly and Dravid. England had to bat for 110 overs to save the Test and they did it because of a classy ton from Kevin Pietersen. The last Test was hence drawn. Still, India won the series 1-0, their first in 21 years in England.