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His is a career that has more dot balls than runs. It is also a career that perhaps has more brickbats than bouquets. Ultimately, it is a career that forged itself against tough times, made a name for itself while bossing pressure, and is about a man who is as simple as he is an achiever.
Batsmen, there are many. But only a few are like Rahul Sharad Dravid, 51 today but simple as always and forever sporting that larger-than-life will to undertake one more challenge for the cause of his country.
At an age where most of his contemporaries are either simply warming the sofa at home or best, waxing lyrical all day from the cushy comfort of a recliner seated in the commentary box, Rahul Dravid is still sweating it out.
He is out there with his boys. His pupils are members of the unit they call Team India.
Their troubles are his.
Their triumphs, if you know Dravid’s selflessness even a bit, are theirs. How so? The man refuses to take credit for the team’s success being quick to point out their hard work in the face of victory and always willing to take the blame in the face of defeat. Remember the 2023 World Cup. He did t come once in front of the camera when India were winning and they won nine out of the nine games except the final.
But to face the heat of the moment, when the critics came with their lament and diatribe to subject India to a cesspool of criticism - no Kohli, no Rohit, or anyone for that matter was sent to face on the media. It was Dravid who faced the heat all alone much like that egregious tour to England in 2011 when only Dravid could face the brunt of Broad, Anderson, and Tremlett when the rest of his colleagues struggled to put bat to ball.
He was our only hope back then on that disastrous tour to England where despite heart-crushing defeats, Dravid stood tall and amassed 468 runs and hit 3 centuries including one at the Lord’s. That’s when Sachin, Laxman, and the rest failed.
And much like how it was back then, Rahul Dravid was our only hope of some sort of normality when we desperately sought some peace and calm amid the blaring noise media soon produced following India’s harrowing World Cup final defeat.
In both instances, the Indore-born, Bangalore-raised man fought alone. H e kept his wits about himself and practiced grace amid pressure when he too could have lost his cool and become ordinary, pitiably ordinary.
But then, Rahul Dravid doesn’t succumb to pressure; he excels in it.
But here’s the kicker.
Frankly speaking, Dravid isn’t done yet despite featuring in over 509 internationals for his country- let that number sink in and despite having captained the national side and after that, a prominent IPL outfit after which he’d mentor the next-generation India cricketers.
Even when he could so easily have, Dravid still didn’t call it quits from the game despite ensuring that the Under-19 side comprising Gill, Prithvi, and company won the ICC World Cup.
How would it ever be?
There’s only one explanation that merits this case.
There have always been careers that were shaped by runs made and stats accumulated. But only a few cared to dabble in affairs that directly impacted India’s destiny well beyond the 22 yards.
At a time when Rahul Dravid, the Bodhisattva meets Batman of batting could simply have rested on his laurels of 36 Test centuries, 13,288 Test runs, and 10,889 one-day runs and a Test batting average north of 52, he didn’t take off the Indian jersey even as he announced his retirement on March 9, 2012.
In that regard, therefore, he never really left the crease; he’s still here.
He took the very team that may perhaps never understand the magnitude of his selflessness to the finals of the recently-held ODI World Cup at home in 2023.
All wonder and perhaps to this day as to what might have been if Dravid had seen India lift the cup.
But then, despite the pain (and the unbearable agony) of having lost to, unarguably speaking, the best in Cricket, one can’t deny the philosophical necessity of having Dravid tackle the burden of an unrivalled loss.
After all, there haven’t been many, and won’t be in the course of the future who’ll be willing to play so little despite being giants at their jobs.
When Dravid plays it modestly, which he most often does, he doesn’t do it as an act of posturing; it’s the only way he knows in which to operate.
Arrogance, self-pride, and rubbing one’s win over an opponent’s face are values he won’t ever entertain or stand for.
This is why in 2021 when you found several from the Indian camp hugging Sri Lanka in the wake of the latter’s defeat and that too, in Sri Lanka, you didn’t overthink.
You just knew the Dravid method of politeness was operating.
Each time Dravid wins a series as a coach, and remember he’s won a few, including the Test series in the Caribbean and the ODI series wins against the Windies, Blackcaps, Zimbabwe, and Sri Lanka, India have been always congenial.
Under Dravid’s preparedness, we may have had our share of disappointments.
But today, the world to whom we were once upon a time and before his coaching stint, a ruthless cricketing power, we are a reason to smile about.
And the epicentre of this smile is the nice-natured Rahul Dravid, a coach who won’t stop at anything besides India’s triumph and a former batsman who went beyond the call of duty for national pride. Always selfless, never full of self-ambition.