How many times must Rahul Dravid prove his critics wrong?

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He’s called Mr. Dependable, Mr. Reliable, Jammy and simply The Wall.

If Raymond—the famed suitings and shirtings  brand— has the Complete Man, then Team India retains the Complete Team Man.

His name is Rahul Sharad Dravid and he has just compiled his 31st ton for India in the third Test at Jamta against New Zealand.

For a man who has over 10,000 Test runs— only the third Indian ever in the select club—Dravid is amazingly low profile.

He prefers to let his bat do the talking, walking, jockeying and shouting.If he could have got a million for each time he was written off , he would have been a millionaire several times over. His longevity never ceases to astonish.

He was considered too much of a slow-coach to be a one-day batsman.He hit the ball too hard; he had yet to learn the art of dropping the ball with soft hands.Yet he defied all odds to be crowned the best batter in the 1999 World Cup in England.

The Indians came closest to regaining the World Cup under Saurav Ganguly in 2003 when India lost the final to Australia. Dravid obliged by keeping wickets throughout the tournament shouldering a responsibility that would have bowed many a stalwart.

When Ganguly lost his captaincy in controversial circumstances, the selectors turned to  Dravid to spare them their blushes  and bail them out.

Dravid has always been the gentleman. If Tendulkar prefers to tune into his IPod , Dravid is the intellectual curled up with a book.

Dravid’s batting style is classic and correct. He is the technician, acutely aware of his craft. He is a throwback to the era of Jack Hobbs, his whites always clean, his lean body a reminder that it is not always brute force that wins the war but sweet, ecstatic timing.

Rahul’s construction of an innings is like an opera piece. He starts slowly and bides his time. The first 30 runs come at almost a crawl. This is has been the case more often than not in the latter part of his career. Thus, if he loses his wicket early, he appears to be struggling. But once he starts seeing the ball better, the pace picks up. The runs start to flow off the willow. It is as though he was building to a crescendo. The bill-boards start to resound to the thwacks of the red missile being dispatched with increasing frequency. He may never be a Tendulkar or a Sehwag but his bat is the broadest to the opposition.

Dravid’s away record is much better than his home record. He averages 50.75 at home but 55.53 on tour. More often than not, he has been the mainstay of the batting line-up when India visits.

Lest you feel these statistics lie, 80 of his 147 Tests have been played away from home.

Conveniently relegated to distant memory is the fact that he has over 10,000 ODI runs in his kitty.

Dravid has struggled in recent times especially in the series against Australia. The whispers about his place in the side started gaining ground once more. But the master bat has silenced them in the only way he knows – two centuries in three Tests. The flaws were corrected in the nets without fanfare or trumpeting.

If Gavaskar and Tendulkar are the Little Masters, Dravid is the best No. 3 batsman India ever had. It is a little known detail that Dravid too hails from Maharashtrian stock.

Dravid has scored a monumental 9474 runs batting at No. 3 for an average of 55.40. 25 of his 31 hundreds have come in that position. The closest vying No. 3s— Mohinder Amarnath and Dilip Vengsarkar— average 47.65 and 40.04 respectively. No other Indian one-down has appeared in more than 40 Tests.

The Wall is unobtrusive but when he retires the gaping void will be very hard to fill. His slip fielding is of immense utility to the side. He needs just one more victim to complete a double ton in catches.

Jammy is one cricketer whose value is recognised only in his absence.When India clinch this series against New Zealand, the fans will do well to remember the architect of their team’s victory.

Quote of the day:
They always talk who never think. – Matthew Prior