Inzamam-ul-Haq remembers first time Rahul Dravid played vs Pakistan in 1996 in Canada.
Inzamam-ul-Haq has fond memories of watching a young Rahul Dravid play against Pakistan way back in 1996. While Inzamam claims to have played against Dravid for the first time in Canada, it was actually the Indian's third series against the neighbouring nation.
However, it was the first time Rahul Dravid was going to play a five-match bilateral ODI series against Pakistan. Inzamam reminisced the memories in a video on his YouTube video. He was pretty keen on watching the Karnataka batsman play as he had heard of him from a few people.
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Inzamam-ul-Haq said on his YouTube channel, "When I first saw him, I remember we were playing in Canada. Someone told me that this new boy plays well. So I thought of having a look at him."
"We had Wasim Akram, Waqar Younis who were known terrorise the youngsters with their pace and swing. Wasim and Waqar’s name was enough for any youngster. But the confidence with which Dravid played them made us believe that he is special," he added.
He also remembered how Pakistan leg spinner Danish Kaneria bowled from round the wicket into the rough and Rahul Dravid made it look easy scoring runs against him. Dravid had scored centuries in both innings in that Test match in Kolkata in 2005 which India won by 195 runs.
"It is very difficult to score runs when spinners bowl from around the wicket and into the rough. In a Test against India in Kolkata, I asked Danish Kaneria to bowl to him from around the wicket but after a while, I realised that he was scoring more runs against him.
I have seen a lot of great players struggle to score when the spinner bowls into the rough but Dravid made it look so easy," the 50-year-old said.
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Inzamam also pointed out that Rahul Dravid liked to score runs away from home or rather he was better at scoring runs outside India. He claimed that it was one of the biggest points in the greatness of India's former No. 3 batsman.
"Dravid used to score runs away from home. If you look at his record, it is simply outstanding. He has scored close to 24-25 thousand runs. This is not easy. Ask Dravid and you will know. He had to perform at the top level with the same consistency for close to 20 years to achieve all this,” he said.