'He took me and Dhoni out for a movie' - Irfan Pathan reveals Rahul Dravid's unforgettable words after 2007 WC exit

Irfan Pathan, the former Indian cricketer, has named Rahul Dravid as his favourite captain. The southpaw also said that he will give his life for ‘The Wall’ of Indian cricket. Irfan made his debut under Sourav Ganguly back in 2003, but Dravid was his skipper for 11 Tests and 38 ODIs from 2004 to 2007. In fact, Irfan was under Dravid for the 2007 World Cup in West Indies.

Irfan said that Dravid used to communicate, making things easier for the players. Team India had a hard time in the mega event. After losses to Bangladesh and Sri Lanka, they were knocked out after the group stage. Pathan, who retired earlier this year, enjoyed every bit of his stint with Dravid as captain.

Many don’t speak about Dravid’s captaincy: Irfan Pathan

“Many know that Dada was my first captain and he backed me a lot. Anil Kumble could’ve captained a lot more games for India. MS Dhoni has achieved everything. But, I loved playing under Dravid, because there was proper communication under him,” Irfan told to Sports Tak on Instagram Live.

After India were ousted, it was up to Dravid, who’s known to possess a calm demeanour, decided to boost the morale of the players. Going down the memory lane, Irfan said that Dravid took him, a young MS Dhoni and the other teammates for a movie.

“Many don’t speak about Dravid’s captaincy, we created a world record while chasing targets under him,” he stated. “Three days after we were out of the 2007 WC, we all were sitting in a room deeply dejected. That’s when Dravid called us and we went to watch ‘300’ movie.”

Remembering the moments, Irfan said how Dravid motivated him and Dhoni to have a successful career for the national team. As per Irfan, the motivational talk infused life in them. The all-rounder mentioned how Dravid made them recover from their grief and misery.

“After some time, he said to me ‘Irfan, this is not end of the world, you played a lot of cricket and will play more in future as well, it was bad that we lost, you and Dhoni will go on and play a lot of cricket for India’. His words made us feel like we are not dead but still alive,” he added. Dravid captained India in 25 Tests, and 79 ODIs.