Rahul Dravid Reveals He Delayed Retirement, The Reason Will Double Your Respect For Him
Former Indian skipper and one of the greatest batsmen at the no.3 spot, Rahul Dravid is known for his calm and composed nature on and off the field. He has played many unforgettable knocks over his career of 16 years. But, he considers himself more of a failure than success in international cricket.
At the GoSports Foundation’s annual Athletes Conclave recently, Dravid said that “I am quite qualified to speak on failure. I played internationals 604 times, but I didn’t cross 50 on 410 of those occasions. When you fail, you tend to brush a lot of things under the carpet. You try to blame someone, find an excuse. But it’s a really good opportunity to learn about yourself.”
By calling it quits in March 2012, Rahul Dravid became the first among India’s finest modern-day Test batsmen, a list that also includes Sachin Tendulkar and VVS Laxman to end his international career.
Dravid scored only 116 runs from three matches all Down Under in his final year of international cricket, but he still looked the only batsman who seemed dependable on overseas conditions, especially when an MS Dhoni-led side was getting thrashed by England and Australia in 2011 and 2012.
Dravid took the opportunity to discuss dealing with pressure using the example of his epic innings against Australia in the Kolkata Test of 2001. “We had lost badly in Mumbai and my form wasn’t good. I was demoted to No. 6. When I was walking in during the second innings, Steve Waugh said ‘Rahul at 6? next Test at 12?’ But I just told myself, ‘let me see how many one balls can I play’. It was the simplest thing I could do and it worked,” Dravid said.
But as is the case with the Aussies, when things don’t go their way, they resort to sledging. And this time around it was the turn of their skipper Steve Waugh. In that match, when Dravid had just come in to bat, Dravid was greeted with a sledge by Waugh.
“In the first three days of the Test match, we (India) were sort of completely beaten. Personally as well, my form was not good. I hadn’t scored runs in Bombay. I hadn’t hit runs in the first innings. In fact, I was demoted to number six in the batting order. In the second innings, when I walked in, Steve Waugh said ‘Rahul, number six in this innings, what is it in the next innings? Number 12?” Dravid said.
Dravid also revealed how he managed to come out of a slump against the tough Aussie side. “It was quite funny because I had reached the depths, I felt so low. I was not in a position to think about the past or about the future. And in cricket, it is just about focusing on one ball at a time. I thought ‘let me see how many one balls I can play at a time.’ I was thinking one more, one more’,” Dravid further added at the Go Sports Athletes’ Conclave in Bengaluru.
However, Dravid went on to score 180 and added 376 runs with VVS Laxman, who scored a then-record score of 281. Both Dravid and Laxman batted the whole of the fourth day in order to set up a win for India. And then it was Harbhajan Singh show afterward, as the visitors were bundled out for 212.
“It’s part of the history that VVS Laxman and I batted the whole day in Calcutta and we went on to win the Test match. Harbhajan Singh bowled beautifully well on the fifth day and we won the match and in Madras as well,” the former Indian captain continued.