To Rahul Dravid, with love

In the Caribbean summer of 2007, the Indian team, led by Rahul Dravid (RD), couldn’t qualify for the semifinals after losing to both Sri Lanka and Bangladesh. Fast forward 17 years to 2024, the Indian Cricket Team played its last international match under head coach RD and went on to win the match and the World Cup, this time again in the Caribbean.

Being a loyal Rahul Dravid fan since his debut means a lot of things. You admire someone who belongs to the traditional school of cricket, relying on technique and inexhaustible patience to master the difficult challenges on and off the field. You respect the “Wall of Cricket”, the most consistent performer, a great team man, and someone who played flawless cricket throughout his career.

They say that Test cricket is the ultimate test of any cricketer’s character and grit. Five days, a minimum of 90 overs per day, and a total of 15 sessions overall not only test your cricketing skills but also your mental strength, grit, ability to bounce back, and sustained focus. As they say, it's not important that you fall, but that you get up every time you fall.

Two Test matches have redefined modern Indian cricket. The first would be the 2001 Test match against Australia at Eden Gardens, and the second one being the 2003 Test match against the same Australia but under a different captain in Adelaide. Dravid played a key role in both, and of course, we cannot forget VVS Laxman’s heroics. Additionally, there are other memorable innings like his 270 in Rawalpindi (2004) and 86 in the Caribbean (2006), but Adelaide was special.

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Since there were no TVs in our hostel those days, we would listen to the match on radio commentary. For both the Kolkata Test and the Adelaide Test, we listened to the commentary on the radio. The Kolkata Test was great because, by the end of the third day of the Kolkata Test against Australia at Eden Gardens in 2001, India was all out and followed on, down and all but out. In the second innings, the Indian team was 232/4, still 42 runs behind Australia, and had just six more wickets left. That's when VVS Laxman and Rahul Dravid started writing a rising-from-the-ash story that became one of the most incredible comebacks in the history of Test cricket. The bowling made that win even more special, with “Turbanator” Harbhajan Singh taking 13 wickets and achieving the first-ever Test hat-trick by any Indian bowler. The Australian team, rated as the best in the world, had won 16 Tests in a row, a Test cricket record, including the previous Test at Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai by 10 wickets.

The Adelaide Test in 2003 was even more special. On foreign ground, facing the lethal Ricky Ponting and a magical Australian team, Ponting scored a double century for Australia in the first innings. In response, India was reduced to 85/4, and then another Dravid-Laxman partnership began. Dravid went on to make 233 in the first innings and a winning 72 not out in the second innings, ensuring that India retained the Border-Gavaskar Trophy. It was a stunning display of class and beautiful stroke-making to counter the all-time great Australian team under Steve Waugh, who was playing his last series.

There were no computers, smartphones, or the internet in those days. We went to the nearest market, Rampatti, to buy every available newspaper and devoured every single line several times. When he was announced Man of the Series, we shouted, danced, and celebrated as if we had received something ourselves. Another cherished childhood memory was watching RD hit a half-century off 22 balls against New Zealand with my schoolmates at BD Adhikari Sir's house.

I still clearly remember the Pakistan series when RD hit 270 in Rawalpindi. Shoaib Akhtar, the fastest bowler at that time, running down from the boundary and bowling close to his fastest deliveries, watched as RD, without changing his facial expression, just left a dozen balls for the wicketkeeper. At one point, we felt Shoaib Akhtar was urging Dravid to at least let the ball touch his bat.

RD has always been technically perfect, admired not only by Indian cricketers but by the whole world, including his contemporaries Brian Lara, Ricky Ponting, Inzamam-ul-Haq, and Sachin Tendulkar. What I really adore is his performance in some of the most critical times without any display of emotion on the field and arrogance off the field—a true reflection of professionalism and perseverance.

If cricket is the gentleman’s game, then RD is its quintessential gentleman, truly deserving of a World Cup.

From your most loyal fan.

(Bibhu Mishra is a columnist at YourStory. He currently works with The Global Education and Leadership Foundation.)