“Was never going to be like Virender Sehwag or Sachin Tendulkar”: Rahul Dravid

Former India captain Rahul Dravid, who is currently the head coach of the Indian men’s cricket team, was one of the finest batters the game has ever seen. Dravid made his Test and ODI debut in 1996 and went on to amass 13,288 and 10,889 runs in Tests and ODIs, respectively.

Notably, Dravid was known for his extreme endurance and textbook batting display. But like every successful cricketer, the Bangalore-born also faced lean patches in his career. However, Dravid always made brilliant comebacks and became one of the greatest batters in world cricket.

Recently, in a podcast – ‘In the Zone’ – with India’s first individual Olympic gold medalist Abhinav Bindra, Dravid revealed how switching off from the game helped him mentally and focus in the game.

“If I look back on my career, that..managing my energy, more of my mental energy was the real game-changer in terms of longevity in my career and in terms of performance. I used to expend a lot of energy, even when I was not playing, thinking about my game, maybe reflecting on it, worrying about it. In time I kind of learned that was not necessarily actually not helping my sport or helping me play better. I needed to refresh and almost find a life outside of cricket,” Dravid said in the podcast.

Dravid further said he could never score freely like a Virender Sehwag or Sachin Tendulkar, but he found his way to deal with pressure and battle against some of the best bowlers of his time.

“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,” added Dravid.