Rahul Dravid
By Venkatesh Raghavan
“Wall’s” awesome reputation is feared
The “Wall” as described by connoisseurs of the cricketing world, Rahul Dravid is all set to take over the reins as head coach of the Indian cricket team soon after the T-20 World championship gets over. One might recall that in the late eighties there were prophets of doom saying, “After Gavaskar, who will be available for Indian Test cricket?” These prophets were proved wrong after the arrival of Sachin Tendulkar and Vinod Kambli on the Indian cricketing scene. Soon after, we had a powerful batch of cricketing batsmen including Sourav Ganguly, Rahul Dravid and VVS Laxman.
Rahul’s name will go down in Indian cricketing history as one of the all-time greats in both Test and one-day formats of the game. However, his feat as a coach well equalled his performance at the crease, when he managed to power the Indian under-19 team to being runners up and subsequently winners while battling for two successive World Cup tournaments. Rahul’s reputation as a sterling coach is also known in overseas cricket circuits and is regarded as a cause enough for the Indian cricket team to be a feared lot in any format of World tournaments.
While Saurav was known for his aggressive posturing as an Indian skipper, it was Rahul that brought the Indian captaincy to the hall of fame as his stellar dignified behavior was something that would easily compare with that of the late Frank Worrell, the West Indies skipper in the sixties. Rahul being opted in as a head coach for the Indian cricket team is a move welcomed by both enthusiasts and the playing eleven. When it came to selection of coaches, Indian selectors did follow a seesaw pattern, bringing in overseas players like New Zealand’s John Wright and former Australian skipper Greg Chappell, before returning to choose Indian veterans, the latest being Ravi Shastri.
Rahul’s track records in coaching the under-19 cricket side for nearly four years has earned him a reputation on par with Gopichand when it comes to turning up quality badminton professionals like Saina Nehwal and PV Sindhu. One ardent Dravid fan said, “He is giving back to the game after getting so much out of it.” M S Dhoni who succeeded Dravid and enjoyed the reputation of captain cool after taking over the mantle of the Indian T-20 World Cup side in 2007 and restoring India to the winning ways after they had fared badly in the ODI tournament was also eyed by many as a probable choice to coach the team.
Dravid, who used a mixture of aggressive and steady batting as per the requirement of the hour won the tag of being “dependable” coming in to play for the team in its middle order. In recent years, the closest to that level of performance comes from Rohit Sharma who scored five centuries for India in the previous World Cup. Dravid’s epic knock along with VVS Laxman that turned the tide of India’s home series against Australia, at Kolkata’s Eden Gardens is regarded as one of the memorable performances in Test cricket. Much later, Dravid made an epic speech in Australia in favour of the five-day version of the game. The series was Dravid’s swan song in Indian Test cricket.
