Suresh Raina recalls how Rahul Dravid plotted Kamran Akmal's wicket perfectly in an ODI in 2006

Suresh Raina’s greatest achievements for India had come under the captaincy of MS Dhoni. However, a lot of people may not know that he made his debut under Rahul Dravid. He was given an opportunity to showcase his potential when Dravid was the captain. The former Indian captain had also backed him to a great extent during Raina’s initial days.

During a recent interaction, Raina talked about the genius of Rahul Dravid. He took an example from the past as a reference to explain how the Karnataka batsman was able to decode the game. He also explained how good a captain Dravid was. During this chat, Raina talked about an incident that had happened during an ODI between India and Pakistan in 2006.

The reason why I remember that catch is that captain, bowler, fielder everybody was involved: Suresh Raina

The incident which he talked about was regarding a plan which Dravid had hatched to dismiss Pakistan’s aggressive wicketkeeper-batsman Kamran Akmal. Raina revealed how Rahul set a strange-looking field because he had a plan for getting Akmal out.

“I remember the catch against Pakistan which I had taken at point. Rahul Dravid was our captain, Irfan Pathan was the bowler and Kamran Akmal was batting. There was a rule at that time to keep catching fielders in the 15 yards. So Rahul Bhai asked me will you stand at the point? I said ‘yes please tell me where to stand’. He said lean forward and be ready to take a catch,” Raina told Kapil Dev in an interview for ABP News.

And the plan worked perfectly. As soon as Raina was sent to that fielding position, Akmal hit a ball straight to him. Irfan Pathan gave room for Akmal to try and go for that shot and Raina, one of the best fielders, caught the ball perfectly. The youngster ran to his captain to celebrate as soon as he caught the ball.

“The moment Irfan delivered the next ball, Akmal smashed it hard, I just saw the ball and it came straight into my hands. The thing that impressed me most was that Rahul Bhai knew it that a catch might come there and it came in the next delivery,” the Chennai Super Kings’ batsman added. “The reason why I remember that catch is that captain, bowler, fielder everybody was involved. And it is a job of the fielder to always be ready for a catch,” said the 33-year-old.

Here’s a clip from that match and that moment which Raina was talking about: