Legendary India cricketer Rahul Dravid has spoken about his time with the national team and also gave an insight into his mindset and what he went through when he was dropped from the side in 1998. Dravid was left out of the ODI team for a year, which according to him, made him question his batting style in the 50-over format.
He, however, stunned the world a year later as at the 1999 World Cup, he was part of two outrageous partnerships and also finished the tournament as the highest run-getter, despite India playing two matches less than finalists Australia and Pakistan.
“There have been phases in my international career,” Dravid said when asked about feeling insecure by women’s cricket team head coach W.V. Raman on the latter’s YouTube channel ‘Inside Out’.
“I was dropped from the ODI team in 1998. I had to fight my way back in…was away from the Indian team for a year. There were certain insecurities about whether I am a good enough one-day player or not because I always wanted to be a Test player…was coached to be a Test player…hit the ball on the ground…don’t hit the ball in the air…coaching like that.
“You sort of worry whether you had the skills to be able do it (in ODIs),” he added.
Dravid, who is part of the exclusive club of batsmen to have scored in excess of 10,000 runs in both ODIs and Tests, also revealed a word of advice from 1983 World Cup winning skipper Kapil Dev regarding life after cricket.
“After I finished (my playing career) there were quite a few options and I wasn’t necessarily sure what to do,” Dravid recalled.
“It was Kapil Dev who gave me this advice actually when I was coming to the end of my career. I bumped into him somewhere and he said ‘Rahul don’t commit to doing anything straightaway, go out and spend a few years just exploring and doing different things and see what you really like’.
“I thought it was good advice so I was also a little fortunate that at the back end of my career I was already in a sort of captain-coach kind of role with Rajasthan Royals,” he added.
–IANS
