Rahul Dravid is as important for India as Jacques Kallis is for South Africa, said visiting middle-order batsman A B de Villiers, insisting that the experienced right-hander's absence will hurt the hosts in the Test series starting in Nagpur on Saturday.
"The number three spot is the biggest one according to me. People don't realise how big a spot that is. A guy like Dravid has stood like a rock under pressure for the Indian side and to lose that is like us losing Kallis. You can't replace a guy like that," said de Villiers at a media meet here today.
His younger teammate and rookie left-arm pacer Wayne Parnell too echoed similar views on the absence of Dravid from the Indian line-up for the series opener. "Rahul is a major loss to the Indian team but there are guys like (VVS) Laxman, (Virender) Sehwag and (Gautam) Gambhir who can get big hundreds," Parnell said.
De Villiers said playing on the Indian soil was not a very difficult task if one knew his strengths and weaknesses.
"Knowing your own game plans, knowing your strengths and weaknesses -- that's the secret (of playing in sub-continent). It's not unplayable over here. A guy who knows where the dangerous areas are normally does well here," said 25-year-old batsman who scored a fantastic double century in a Test in Ahmedabad three years ago. PTI
