Sports Desk- Team India has had many successful captains in the past. The names of Sourav Ganguly, Kapil Dev and MS Dhoni comes first. At the same time, when referring to the current captains, Virat Kohli’s name is at the top of it. But Rahul Dravid did that quite efficiently, during what is regarded as one of the toughest phases of Indian cricket.
There was a time when Dravid captained India to 17 straight ODI wins while chasing. Other than this, he captained 79 ODIs matches out of which India won 42. In 25 Tests as a captain, he helped India win eight. In a recent interaction, Irfan Pathan highlighted the brilliance of Rahul Dravid as a captain.
Now, former Indian all rounder Irfan Pathan has talked about Dravid – the captain, insisting that he was “100 per cent a great captain.”
In an Instagram Live video chat show ‘Beyond the Field’ with ESPNCricinfo presenter Raunak Kapoor, Irfan Pathan was asked to describe Dravid during a rapid-fire round. In his response, Pathan said. “Most, most, most underrated cricketer in the world.”
“Every captain has their way – there are captains who thinks differently, and Rahul Dravid was also one captain who thought differently, but he was very clear in his communication. He would tell ‘this is your role and you have to work accordingly’.
“He wanted you to do everything. He has played cricket like that as well. He has donned the wicketkeeper’s gloves, he was ready to open, he was ready to bat at no. 3. People would says he is not a great ODI cricketer, but he has scored 10,000+ runs in 50 overs cricket as well. He was such a great team’s player. His style of captaincy was also for the team,” said Pathan.
“Whenever there was a problem, he was always there. Sometimes it gets difficult to communicate with a captain, because they are always surrounded by things. But Dravid was one such captain, that you can even approach him at 2 am at night with a problem. A captain’s role is to keep communication with all the players, and he did that,” Pathan further said.
