A Tribute to Rahul Dravid: The Wall of Indian Cricket! Part One—ODIs

Rahul Sharad Dravid, better known as 'The Wall' in the cricketing fraternity, made his debut alongside Sourav Ganguly at Lord's in 1996. He has since become the most compact and dependable batsman of his generation (I can proudly say it refers to the entire world and not just India).

Even being a die hard Tendulkar fan, I have no regrets in saying I would put my money on Dravid than Tendulkar if the situation was tight and tough.

This man, who has said it himself, has been overshadowed by the likes of Tendulkar, Ganguly and Laxman who are more free flowing and elegant. Never has it bothered him to play second fiddle to those lovely stroke makers.

He was initially criticised for being too sluggish in the ODI format and dropped. He soon made a comeback and is only one of the eight batsmen to have scored 10000 runs in the format. He was the leading run scorer with 461 runs in the 1999 WC held in England although India didn't make it to the semifinals.

He is still the only Indian to score back to back hundreds in a WC for India ( against Kenya and Sri Lanka).

I definitely cannot forget or not mention his sacrifice during the 2003 WC in South Africa when he kept wickets (he was not bad by any means). This helped India bring in Kaif at No. 7 and they went all the way to the finals.

Do we ever talk about his role in that? He played a significant role with the bat too and was also the vice captain of the team. Now that's multi faceted!

I wonder if there has ever been a batsman who has been shuffled in the batting order as much as this guy! He is Dravid afterall and supposed to adjust! Not a word of disappoinment has ever been uttered by this great guy.

The captaincy stint started off very well in 2006 with a 6-1 win over Sri Lanka at home but the 2007 WC was a disaster. I don't think he can be blamed for that. A bad decision against Bangladesh and a 60 against Sri Lanka (a lone hand in the match).

With his form also dipping he quit captaincy (after a series win in England!) and that was probably the only decision he has taken with himself in mind. Soon he was dropped during the end of the ODI series against Australia.

That has probably brought to an end a glorious career with so many face saving innings for India. He still has a good average of almost 40 which is above the Sehwags and Yuvrajs, of course having played more games than them too.

A tribute to the most soft spoken person and dark horse of Indian cricket. Cheers.