Rahul Dravid, The Fortress of Indian Cricket, Tuned up for Moulding Young Talents to Brilliance

Rahul Dravid, The Fortress of Indian Cricket, Tuned up for Moulding Young Talents to Brilliance: Rahul Sharad Dravid! Genuinely, the previous sentence might have been a short one but the name itself speaks of the arch-like stature of ‘The Wall’ of India.

‘If I have to put anyone to bat for my life, it’ll be Dravid or Kallis’ – Brian Charles Lara.

‘Try to take Dravid’s wicket in the first 15 minutes. If you can’t try taking the remaining wickets!’ – Steve Waugh.
‘Some succeeded because they were destined to, but Dravid succeeded because he was determined to’ – Navjot Singh Sidhu.
‘If you can’t get along with Dravid, you are struggling in life’ -Brett Lee.

‘The wolf who lived for the pack!’ – Harsha Bhogle.

‘Sachin is God. Sourav is God of the off side. Laxman is God of the fourth innings. But when the doors of the temples are closed, even the Gods are behind the Wall!’– A Placard.

Rather than describing the majestic Cricketing legend, the master of 13,288 test runs coupled with 10889 ODI runs, I chose to portray the quotes upon him which epitomize his classified, unparalleled amount of dedication and selflessness in the game and to a supplemented extent, he excelled throughout.

Dravid has been the unsung hero of Indian Cricket. Right in the first test innings of career, his vital knock 95 runs on English soils was overshadowed by the century of another debutant in that test, Sourav Ganguly. Since then, till the conclusion of his international career in Australia back in 2012, Rahul Dravid had been the second hero of Indian cricket.

‘Jammy’, the nickname of the legend, has been hugely flexible with his role in the Indian team, and perhaps the Indian cricket on a broader niche. He opened the innings for the team, batted  lower down the order for the team, took the role of emergency controller for them by coming into bat at number three in tests, gave them the cushion to have an extra batsman by coping up with the role of a wicket keeper, possessed the safest pair of hands in the slip cordon, captained the national side for a couple of years and also did the job of a par time spinner whenever he was asked to. That is what Rahul Dravid has meant for Indian Cricket. And he has been assigned with yet another compartment in the train by the job of coaching the India Under 19 and India A teams.

Undoubtedly, Rahul Dravid has defined the grammar in batting. He is sure a player to be admired and appointing a person with such composure as the coach of a young bunch of talents might well be a stepping stone for Indian Cricket for producing glorified cricketing talents in the near future. Dravid played a total of 164 tests in his career and scored the runs at an average of 52.31. Thus, undoubtedly, he holds gallons of cricketing experience that might well serve as the platter to mould youngsters to cricketing pros. During his days as a batsman, Dravid taught many a lessons to the cricketing world on orthodox shot playing with maximized levels of accuracy on timing and placements.

Apart from cricketing terms, there are indeed other aspects to learn from him and first in the list comes Dedication. Perhaps, to define in the best possible manner, Dravid literally became a cricketer and was not born a cricketer! Apart from his batting and knowledge and passion for the game, one cannot ignore his immense catching and fielding qualities. As a matter of fact, Dravid holds the record for taking the most number of catches in tests as a fielder with 210 catches. There have been very few fielders who could match his class while fielding in the slip cordon.

Surely, the aspiring talents of Indian Cricket are expected to prosper much under the fruitful guidance of Rahul Dravid. We have already witnessed instances of the Coaching brilliance of Dravid in the Indian Premier League for the Rajasthan Royals. Rajasthan Royals have been the manufacturer of young and promising talents to international cricket for couple of years now.

Even Dravid himself seems to be pretty much excited about his new role in Indian Cricket. When being asked about his preference of coaching the national team rather than coaching the Under 19 team, Dravid answered in a way which once again portrayed his simplicity and selflessness. He said that he enjoys coaching the young talents and he’d be able to teach quite a decent amount of lessons to the inexperienced bunch which could well shape their careers to success. Dravid also mentioned of the fact that enjoys being in such kind of role.

Dravid said, “I think it is really exciting because it has been an area I have always been interested in. I feel it is a very important stage of development of a lot of cricketers, having been through it myself. I am just hoping that having experience being on A tours and being with an Indian Under-19 team, I will probably be able to help some of these young cricketers on their journey.”

The Wall further added that the prospect which excites him the most is working with the young talents. Surely, Indian Cricket is moving towards a positive future with immense possibilities and Dravid might surely be the catalyst for the same.

The Cricket World is soon to witness yet another instance of the diversified brilliance of the Cricketing phenomenon, Rahul Sharad Dravid!