The Wall, The Fortress and The Gentleman.....

Fifteen years ago, this day at Lord's, India had lost early wickets and a left hander made his debut. A left hander who was hugely talented but just as arrogant. People had lot of expectations from him. He hit a century. People were happy. He hit another hundred in the next test in Edgebaston. People were ecstatic. They claimed that the future has arrived. It had. At Lord's another lanky 23 year old was playing as well. He was known to be a steady bat. He played his part very well. But missed out his hundred and an opportunity to create history by just 5 runs. Next test where the left hander scored another hundred, he scored 84 and missed yet another hundred. People pitied him. We did too. But more than pity we liked the way he played. He was wristy, elegant and watchful. We were 12 then but we devoted ourselves to be his fan. As people said, future of Indian cricket had arrived but it was that right hander who would carry the country's hope for more than a decade. 

Little did we know the luck, which eluded the 150th Indian test cricketer in his first two matches, would play hide and seek with him throughout his career. Luck made him spend entire cricketing career as a second fiddle to him. People never seemed to be really happy. He is slow they said, he is not fit for limited overs they said. He took every criticsim in his elegant stride. He showed them why he is one of the greatest ever players in the modern era. He showed why India needs him at number three. For us he is the greatest Indian player and stands just behind Lara as the greatest player we have seen. We have sworn our devotion to the greatest supporting act in the history of Indian cricket, perhaps world cricket even. Yes. You know whom we are talking about. Rahul Sharad Dravid.

We think rather than telling why he is a great player, we will just give you some high level overview of the stats. 10000+ runs in both formats of the game (Only 3 others have done it), 200 catches in tests, 200+ dismissals (including keeping) in ODIs, 90 50+ scores in tests and 94 in ODIs, only player till date to score hundreds in all test nations, 80+ century partnerships in tests. 50+ in ODIs, two 300+ partnerships in ODIs, one of only three batsmen to hit Test centuries in four consecutive test innings, to add to this the countless number of times where he rescued the team and lifted it to safety or at least a par score.

Life was never been fair to him. His whole career he has been marked as a second fiddle for other players. Whenever he scored a hundred, there would b someone else as well and snatch the deserved MoM award. He has spent his career as a shadow to him and we feel sad. Indian fans never did treat him right. There have been quite a few moments where people simply ignored the fact that RD reached a milestone. We always gets pissed off when that happens. How is it that the entire country is grateful to only one person. Sure he has done whole lot more than anyone else. But shouldn’t the real cricket fans be fair?

We being a test match fan, do not prefer T20s or ODIs as much. So we will list the five best test knocks by the Wall. This is our personal opinion. We do know that listing five is not the proper justice. The list where he played an important knock would go on and on. So we will stick to five best according to us.

148 vs SA in 1996, Jo'burg : First century by Dravid. Playing against powerful SA attack lead by Allan Donald, this was a masterpiece.

180 vs Aus in 2001, Kolkata : For us it’s the greatest test match of all time. VVS scored 281 and everyone went nuts. The fact that nobody else could have lent a better helping hand escaped many minds. We are naming this the greatest supporting knock in history.

177 vs Srl in 2009, Ahmedabad: We feel this was his most fluent innings. He kept finding boundaries and we absolutely loved watching him in this innings.

233 vs Aus in 2003, Adelaide : This test belonged to Dravid. That's all we can say.

81 & 68 vs WI in 2006, Kingston : The greatest knock for us was not a century or a double century. When the entire batting of both the teams struggled, the wall weaved magic. He led the defense and made sure that India is in a commanding position. These two innings' are why India needs Dravid.

People have been trumpeting his achievements so much that we feel kind of disappointed. We are not against him. No. We just wanted al to know that there are some other players who have given their everything for the game as well. It has been 15 years. You have provided us inspiration, entertainment and hope so many times. Thank you Rahul Dravid and God Bless.