There are almost 4000 tigers in the wild, but there's only one Rahul Dravid: Ross Taylor

Former New Zealand skipper Ross Taylor retired from international earlier this year. He was the backbone of the Kiwis’ middle-order and played match-winning knocks in the 2019 World Cup semifinal as well as in the final of the inaugural edition of the ICC World Test Championship final against India in 2021.

Lately, Taylor has written an autobiography titled ‘Black And White’ and in that book, he has narrated an incident featuring the current India head coach Rahul Dravid where the duo had visited the Ranthambore National Park in Rajasthan to see a tiger. The ex-Black Caps batter also mentioned that the general public were more interested in Dravid than spotting a tiger.

They were as excited to see him as we were to see the tiger: Ross Taylor

“I asked Dravid, ‘how many times have you seen a tiger?’ He said, ‘I’ve never seen a tiger. I’ve been on 21 of these expeditions and haven’t seen a single one.’ I thought, ‘What? 21 safaris for zero sightings.’ Seriously, if I’d known that, I wouldn’t have gone. I would’ve said, “No thanks, I’ll watch the Discovery channel. Jake Oram had been out in the morning – no joy.

“There was some baseball game on TV that he wanted to watch so he didn’t come with us on the mid-afternoon safari. It wasn’t long before our driver got a radio call from a colleague to say they’d found T-17, a famous, tagged tiger. Dravid was thrilled: 21 safaris without seeing as much as a tiger turd, but half an hour into number 22 he’d hit pay dirt,” Taylor wrote in his autobiography as reported by stuff.co.nz.

“We pulled up beside the other vehicles, open-top SUVs a bit bigger than Land Rovers. The tiger was on a rock, a good 100 metres away. We were stoked to see a tiger in the wild, but the people in the other vehicles immediately aimed their cameras at Rahul. They were as excited to see him as we were to see the tiger. Maybe more: across the globe there are almost 4000 tigers in the wild, but there’s only one Rahul Dravid,” he added.

Rahul Dravid and Ross Taylor played together in four seasons of the IPL between 2008 to 2011. Both were a part of the Royal Challengers Bangalore from 2008 to 2010 before being roped in by the inaugural edition’s winners Rajasthan Royals in 2011. The 2011 season also happened to be the last one featuring the late spin legend Shane Warne as a player.

Ross Taylor’s autobiography was released on Thursday, August 11 where he made some shocking revelations during his playing career including facing racism and also being allegedly slapped by an RR owner for his batting performances not being up to the mark during the 2011 season. Giving clarification on the same, Taylor added that the person reminded him that he was not brought on board to score ducks after being paid in millions.