File image of Rahul Dravid
Former Indian cricketer Gautam Gambhir reckons that amid captaincy comparisons between Sourav Ganguly, and MS Dhoni and now Virat Kohli, only a few give credit to Rahul Dravid for his captaincy. Gambhir added that Dravid is probably the most underrated cricketer and leader that India has witnessed.
Dravid had become a full-time captain from around 2005. Overall, he led India in 104 international matches with India winning 50. The win percentage is the fifth-best among all Indian skippers. He had even led India in 2007 World Cup where the Men in Blue suffered a group-stage exit.
“I made my ODI debut under Sourav Ganguly, I made my Test debut under Rahul Dravid. It is so unfortunate that we do not give enough credit for his captaincy as well. We only talk about Sourav Ganguly or MS Dhoni and now about Virat Kohli. But Rahul Dravid has been a fabulous captain for India,” Gambhir said during Star Sports show, ‘Cricket Connected’ in which he appeared with VVS Laxman.
Recalling Dravid's achievements as a skipper, Gambhir spoke about the 2006 Test series win in West Indies and the 2007 Tesrt series victory in England, besides a rather impressive run in the ODI format.
“Even his records, he is probably the most underrated cricketer and probably the most underrated leader as well. We won in England, we won in West Indies and we won 14 or 15 games on the trot. But look at Rahul Dravid as a cricketer.
You asked him to open the batting in Test cricket and he did that. He kept wickets for India, he batted as a finisher. He did everything Indian cricket or a captain asked him to do and that is the kind of role models you want,” Gambhir added.
Gambhir then compared Dravid's captaincy with that of Ganguly, saying that the former had a better impact in Indian cricket.
“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 on someone like Sachin Tendulkar as well. He played under the shadow of Sachin Tendulkar all his life, but impact wise probably the same,” Gambhir said.
