Former India opener Gautam Gambhir said that legendary batsman Rahul Dravid is probably the most ‘underrated’ former captain in the country.
Gambhir said Dravid’s contribution is like that of master blaster Sachin Tendulkar but he did not get enough credit. Dravid captained in 79 ODI matches for India. In those 79 matches team won 42, including a record of winning 14 consecutive matches.
Under the captaincy of Dravid, India performed brilliantly in the Test series in the West Indies, South Africa, Bangladesh, and England.
“I made my one-day debut under Sourav Ganguly and my Test debut under Rahul Dravid. It is so unfortunate that we do not give Rahul Dravid enough credit for his captaincy,” Gambhir said in Star Sports’ Cricket Connected.
“We only talk about Sourav Ganguly, MS Dhoni, now we talk about Virat Kohli. But Rahul Dravid has been a fabulous captain for India as well.”
Rahul Dravid is an underrated leader: Gautam Gambhir
Regarding Rahul Dravid who scored 13288 runs in 164 Tests and 10889 runs in 344 ODIs for India, Gambhir said,
“Even his records, he’s probably the most under-rated cricketer and probably the most under-rated leader as well. We won in England, West Indies, we won some 14 or 15 games on the trot.”
“If you look at Dravid as a cricketer, I think if you asked him to open the batting in Test cricket, he did, he batted at No 3, he kept wickets for India, he batted as a finisher, he did everything what Indian cricket asked him or what a captain asked him to do and that is the kind of role models you want,”
Dravid has the same impact as Tendulkar: Gautam Gambhir
Rahul Dravid was the head coach for India’s Under-19 and A teams from 2016 to 2019. Currently, he is serving as the director of cricket operations at the National Cricket Academy in Bangalore.
Gambhir, who was part of the Indian team that won the World Cup (2011) and T20 World Cup (2007), said that Dravid’s influence on Indian cricket is more than that of Tendulkar and Ganguly.
“Sourav Ganguly has always had a bigger impact in white-ball cricket because of his flamboyance. But Rahul Dravid overall, in Indian cricket, had a much bigger impact than probably anyone. You can actually match his impact to someone like Sachin Tendulkar as well because he played under the shadows of Tendulkar all his life. But yes, impact wise, probably the same.”
Apart from a great batsman, Dravid was also an excellent fielder and wicketkeeper. He dismissed 85 batsmen in 73 matches from 1999 to 2004 as a wicketkeeper.
Dravid also set a world record for most catches in Test cricket as a non-wicketkeeper fielder. He took 210 catches in 164 matches.
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