Fondly known as the ‘The Wall’ because of his sound technique, Rahul Dravid is widely regarded as one of the greatest batters to have played for India.
During his illustrious career, Dravid amassed 13288 Test runs at an average of 52.31 with 36 tons and 63 half-centuries. Besides, the former India captain proved his mettle in white-ball cricket, scoring 10889 ODI runs in 344 matches at an average of 3916 with 12 centuries and 83 fifties.
Dravid bid adieu to international cricket in 2012 but not before finishing as the fourth highest run-getter in Test cricket behind Sachin Tendulkar, Ricky Ponting and Jacques Kallis.
Patience was synonymous with Dravid as he used to be intense and yet so calm while batting. He holds the unique record of facing the maximum number of deliveries (31258) in Test history.
Speaking on India's Olympic gold medalist Abhinav Bindra’s podcast 'In the Zone', Rahul Dravid reflected on his career and said: "If I look back at my career, that (channelising the engery) was a game-changer. I was really able to channel my mental energy. I used to spend a lot of energy even when I was not playing thinking about my game, worrying about it, and reflecting on it. In time I learned that was not necessarily helping my batting. I needed to refresh and almost find a life outside of cricket."
The current India head coach further said he was never going to be like Virender Sehwag or Sachin Tendulkar but he found his way to deal with pressure.
"Honestly, I was never going to be like Viru (Virender Sehwag). He found it much easier to switch off because of his personality. I was never going to get to that level. But I started recognising the red flags, I realised when I was getting too intense. I knew I needed to find a way to switch it off but it was the mental side of the thing that you need to help yourself. It came down to you recognising that this was as important to you as those extra hours in the gym and practice sessions. If you did all of that but were unable to switch off mentally, you are not gonna have enough energy to play the game. Once I start recognising that three or four years in my career, I started to make an effort to switch off a lot more and it helped me a lot.
"As my career progressed, I realised, I was never gonna be someone who will be scoring quickly like a Sehwag did or maybe to an extent as Sachin did. I was always going to need patience. I loved that contest between me and the bowler, sort of tried to make it a one-on-one contest. I found that help me concentrate a bit more," Dravid remarked.
After his retirement, Rahul Dravid served Indian cricket as a coach of Under-19 and ‘A’ sides. He was also the head of the National Cricket Academy (NCA) in Bangalore before being appointed India’s chief coach in November 2021.
