When I went to England in 2011, if had not had a good tour, I would have quit - Rahul Dravid

Often touted as one of the greatest batsmen India has ever produced, Rahul Dravid had announced his retirement in March 2012. The announcement came after a dismal tour in Australia where India were whitewashed four nil by the hosts. While Dravid was poor in Australia, he was the only saving grace in England where India faced a whitewash and lost their No.1 ranking.

The Wall as he’s often referred to, scored a phenomenal 461 runs, including three hundreds, at a splendid average of 76.83. Rahul Dravid spoke about his retirement at the Go Sports Athletes’ Conclave 2017 held in Bengaluru recently.

Didn’t want to be a burden on the team

Rahul Dravid admitted that retirement was always round the corner. He also mentioned that performances had a part to play in making the decision. Dravid remarked that he didn’t want to be a burden for the team and be picked on the basis of past reputations.

“For the last year of my career, I kind of was thinking about retirement. You come to your stage in your career where you kind of start thinking about this, but it is natural because it’s the fag end of your career, Your performances also dictate that to a large extent. I didn’t want to be someone who was a burden on the team, someone whose performance didn’t justify his place and was being carried along.”

If I am the guy who is doing well, then I need to be there for the team

Speaking about the England tour, the former Indian skipper told that it was supposed to be his swansong.

“When I went to England in 2011, if had not had a good tour, I would have quit. That England tour would have been my last series. I had made up mind. Vijeta [wife] and kids were going to come there.”

However, the series turned out to be a horrid tour for India with Dravid being the only silver lining. Thus, he decided to extend his retirement further to the Australian tour.

“But as luck would have it, I ended up scoring three centuries and then with the tour of Australia coming six months later, I just felt the time was not right to quit then. Six months to go for a difficult tour of Australia. I said ‘If I am the guy who is doing well, then I need to be there for the team.’ But then, once Australia happened, we lost and I felt it was time for the young generation to take over.”

I was someone who maximised my potential

The 44-year-old told that he wanted to be remembered as someone who did the best with his abilities. He remarked that he was no Sachin Tendulkar but still went on to achieve a lot for the country.

“A lot of people who’d seen me as a youngster have told me ‘Rahul, I never thought you’d be able to score 13,000 Test runs or 10,000 ODI runs.’ I wasn’t a standout player. Like, if you saw a Tendulkar, you’d know he’d become a great player. Not with me. But I actually liked it. It was a backhanded compliment. I was someone who maximised my potential.”