Legendary India cricketer Rahul Dravid is a part of the elusive club of batsmen with more than 10,000 runs to their name in both Tests and ODIs. However, ‘the Wall’ admitted that there were some insecurities about the way he batted when he was dropped from the Indian side in 1998.

Dravid missed a year of ODI cricket after being dropped, but came back strongly in 1999 and was the highest run-getter in the World Cup that year in England, despite India playing two matches less than Australia and Pakistan.

“There have been phases in my international career,” Dravid said in a chat with W.V. Raman on the latter’s YouTube channel ‘Inside Out’.

“I was dropped from the ODI team in 1998. I had to fight my way back in…was away from the Indian team for a year. There were certain insecurities about whether I am a good enough one-day player or not because I always wanted to be a Test player…was coached to be a Test player…hit the ball on the ground…don’t hit the ball in the air…coaching like that,” Dravid elaborated.

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“You sort of worry whether you had the skills to be able do it (in ODIs),” he added.

Dravid, who made his debut in 1996, played 164 Tests, making 13288 runs with 36 centuries at an average of 52.31. In 344 ODIs, he made 10889 runs with 12 centuries at an average of 39.16, before calling time on his career in 2012. He also played one T20I match, making 31 runs.

The current NCA head also revealed that it was the advice of 1983 World Cup-winning captain Kapil Dev, that ensured what he was going to do after finishing with his career.

“It was Kapil Dev who gave me this advice actually when I was coming to the end of my career. I bumped into him somewhere and he said ‘Rahul don’t commit to doing anything straightaway, go out and spend a few years just exploring and doing different things and see what you really like’,” Dravid said.

(IANS inputs)