We don't give Rahul Dravid enough credit for his captaincy, feels Gautam Gambhir
Gautam Gambhir, who made his Test debut under Rahul Dravid, has stated that the Karnataka lad doesn’t get enough credit for his ‘fabolous captaincy’ and is highly underrated. Gambhir also applauded Dravid for playing many roles during his reign with Indian team without complaining at all.
After being officially named as the successor to Sourav Ganguly in October 2005, Dravid went on to captain India in a total of 25 Tests and 79 ODIs, winning eight and 42, respectively. India became a dominant force in successful ODI chases, which was one of their weak points in the Ganguly era, as the team accumulated 17 consecutive ODI wins batting second.
While his claim to the pinnacle of Indian batting heroes was never in doubt, he was never accorded the same respect as a skipper, with his name slipping under the radar more often than not. Gautam Gambhir reminded the same while eulogising the man who led him for the first time in Test cricket.
"I made my one-day debut under Sourav Ganguly and my Test debut under Rahul Dravid. It is so unfortunate that we do not give Rahul Dravid enough credit for his captaincy. We only talk about Sourav Ganguly, MS Dhoni, now we talk about Virat Kohli, but Rahul Dravid has been a fabulous captain for India as well. Even with his records, he's probably the most under-rated cricketer and probably the most under-rated leader as well," Gambhir told Star Sports, reported Times of India.
His name has been remembered as the gold standard in Indian cricket for the way he managed to don several hats, without ever complaining, and did those tasks with utmost perfection. Gambhir matched his impact with Sachin Tendulkar while adding that Dravid, as a whole, was more impactful than Sourav Ganguly.
"If you look at Rahul Dravid as a cricketer, I think if you asked him to open the batting in Test cricket, he did, he batted at No. 3, he kept wickets for India, he batted as a finisher, he did everything what Indian cricket asked him or what a captain asked him to do and that is the kind of role models you want.
“For me, I think he has had a bigger impact. Sourav Ganguly has always had a bigger impact in white-ball cricket because of his flamboyance, but Rahul Dravid overall, in Indian cricket, had a much bigger impact than probably anyone. You can actually match his impact to someone like Sachin Tendulkar as well because he played under the shadows of Sachin Tendulkar all his life, but yes, impact wise, probably the same," said Gambhir.