Rahul Dravid, the name conjures up images of a player and a person who is calm and composed. The name brings in a sense of calm and someone who is under complete control. If at all there is one Indian player who can be trusted to brace himself on a tough wicket, it will be Rahul Dravid.
Yes, Rahul Dravid displayed all those attributes in his long career for India. During the course of his glittering career, he has played so many such great knocks and some of them have resulted in India winning the test and the series. It is quite difficult to pick and analyse just one innings of his in a plethora of such contribution. Nonetheless, the one innings that for me defined who Rahul Dravid was, was the one at Headingley. Rahul Dravid and the magical innings.
In Dravid’s words
This was the test that propelled Rahul Dravid from a good batsman to a great batsman.
“I must admit that during the last tour I went through a bit of a purple patch. I think it was the beginning of a very successful run which lasted almost two and a half years.” He further said, “I felt my game peaked at that stage, I was playing at the top of my game, playing really well. What made me happy was that we all played some good cricket on that trip – to win the Headingley Test after taking a decision to bat first on that wicket … that century was the highlight of the tour. It set the tone for us, allowed us to fight back in the series.
Rahul Dravid the forever journeyman
Throughout his career, Dravid never got credit for the sheer number of times he had helped India win the game. On the one hand, there was Tendulkar upon whom the entire media spotlight was focussed on and on the other there was Ganguly who was thought to be and rightly so, the captain who turned around the fortunes of the Indian team. Sehwag was feted for his belligerence and Laxman for his sheer class. However, Dravid always remained an afterthought. It was one because of the slow nature of his batting and two, he never shows any emotion on the field. Anger or otherwise. One thing that did not escape anyone’s attention was his steel like determination. It was there on show in all its splendour.
Headingley 2002
This innings was not only crafted under the most challenging of circumstances but also under intense scrutiny. This innings of Dravid most certainly ranks higher when compared to the 148 at Durban or even the 180 at Calcutta.
The Indians had just come off of a series loss against West Indies a couple of months before. The West Indies team of that year wasn’t as bad as how they are now. They still had Lara and Hooper. Infact, the Indians won one test in that series which was the team’s first test win outside of the sub-continent after 1986. The paucity of wins did create lot of snide remarks on the team.
To make matters worse, most of the former English players expected England to win the series easily. Ian Botham, one of the English allrounder had predicted a 4-0 thrashing and he wanted England to concentrate on that year’s Ashes rather than worrying about an Indian team that was ripe for the taking. Until then, even Indians did believe that we weren’t that good because we had just lost the first test and the 2nd test was drawn against much expectation.
The test
It was under such extenuating circumstances did the Indian team step onto the field at Headingley. It was a typical English morning. Cold and with tremendous cloud cover. With the Dukes in hand, the English bowlers who have grown on such pitches and under such cloud cover, will be able to swing the ball throughout the day. The England team really wanted to make short work on the Indians. They wanted to wrap up the series at Headingley. If possible within 3 days and not leave the series hanging until the last test. However, what they encountered on the morning of the first day was something they would not have imagined in their wildest dreams. Sure a 50 or a 75 run partnership and that would have been that but it wasn’t to be.
India won the toss. Usually, when India wins the toss on away tours, they will always bowl. More so, if the conditions are helping the bowlers. Not this time. Not this team led by the brilliant Saurav Ganguly. This time, Ganguly opted to bat. This was such a brave decision. The fact was that India were actually trailing in the series and were in a must win situation.
And the innings unfurled
India lost Sehwag quite early in the day. In came Dravid to not only steady the innings but to lay a platform for the belligerent middle order. He began the innings with a nudge towards gully and the ball sped to the boundary. It was a little bit too edgy for the fans however. A few deliveries later, he unfurled a beautiful cover drive of the bowling of Hoggard. Anyone wants to know how to play the cover drive when the ball is swinging will do well to watch the video of this shot again and again. Unfortunately, the video only has the boundaries scored over the course of the innings. However, the real technical skill was not in how important it is a punish the bad balls but also how important is playing every ball on its merit.
The technical mastery was there for all to see. Head in position, weight beautifully transferred to the front, shoulders moving towards the line of the ball, front foot right in front of the ball and eyes watching the ball right till it hit the middle of the bat. The result of such co-ordination among the various parts of the body will always be a marvellously driven boundary towards covers. When someone plays with such precision, it always means that the batsman is in good nick and he makes the most out of such form.
The innings had all the shots from the Dravid’s school of batsmanship
I do not want to go into the details of every shot he played in that superlative innings. It will take an entire book to describe the beauty of that innings. The innings had everything from cover drives, leg glance to pull shots of both the front foot and the backfoot. However, none of these came to define the Dravid of the following years. It was the power of concentration, the precise foot movement, the sheer determination and the ability to wait for a long period of time. Not just for that one delivery to score from but during the entire course of an innings.
A word of praise for Bangar
Sanjay Bangar, who played as an allrounder was thrusted into the role of an opening batsman because India during those days wanted someone to handle the new ball to protect the middle order. Bangar did play the greatest innings of his brief career. He not only withstood the assault of the new ball but he ensured that he played long enough to completely negate the threat of the English bowlers. His innings was the prime reason why Dravid was able to remain himself and not play too defensively. In a way, Bangar helped Dravid play the greatest innings of his career.
The win at Headingley did give a great deal of confidence to the Indian team. It was the test that showed the team that they can compete. Compete against the best of the team and against all odds.
Also read a youngster’s dream fulfilled here, here and here.