12 Innings when Rahul Dravid broke the myth of being just a Test batsman

Classical, orthodox, copybook, solid, technical, steady, methodical – these are the words generally used to describe Rahul Dravid as a batsman and there is nothing wrong with it. But what is wrong is limiting his batting style to these adjectives. For a large part of his career, Rahul was perceived as a Test batsman. After his first 2 years in ODI cricket, he was dropped from the side. He came back, reinvented his ODI game, added some new strokes to his armoury, scored the highest number of runs in World Cup 1999 and became a regular part of the ‘Men in Blue’.

But as people feel, “First impression is the last impression” and Dravid suffered from this ideology like no other cricketer. Probably his style was so perfectly suited to test cricket that people labelled him as a test batsman. If you check his one-day international career, you will see that he scored his ODI runs at a strike rate of approximately 71 runs per 100 balls.

The current generation of cricket fans who have started following the game recently in the batsmen-friendly era might consider it modest but those who have followed Dravid’s career since its inception will know the importance of this modest strike rate. They will know that most of the runs that Dravid scored came while managing the disaster during the innings.

He was the glue that held the whole innings together letting the Sachins, Sehwags and Yuvrajs express themselves. And when there was a need to strike big, the organised guy was never shy of breaking the stereotypes. Of course, you cannot score 10,000 runs in the format, be a part of two 300-plus stands in ODI cricket and score heaps of runs for your IPL franchises just being a Test batsman.

He was one of the cleanest hitters on his days. Here is a list of 12 such innings from ‘The Wall’ when he broke the myth of only being a Test batsman:

1. 72* (64) v Zimbabwe, Bulawayo, 2001:

A man-of-the-match award winning performance from Rahul Dravid where he ensured that India clinches 2 points after a tense chase. Dravid came out to bat with the required run rate hovering around 6 which was a tricky number during that time. Building a 93-run partnership with Sourav Ganguly, Rahul was busy throughout the innings rotating the strike and scoring occasional boundaries without letting the asking rate creep up.

His strike rate was over 100 for most part of the innings. He completed his half-century in 44 balls and even after Ganguly’s departure and next 4 wickets falling in around 30 runs, Dravid stood as a rock at the other end constantly taking India closer towards their target.

The perfection with which he paced his inning can be assessed by the fact that India won the match in the last over but still the touring team never seemed in trouble with the required run rate. Dravid finished the match on the second ball of the last over with a backfoot drive through the covers.