BANGALORE, March 22: Is he an artist or an artisan? The jury, out for years, has not been able to reach a verdict on Rahul Dravid.
The problem is that his batting has shades of both.
The 32-year-old Dravid, who reclaimed his place as the world’s top-ranked batsman with a century in each innings during India’s 195-run victory against Pakistan in the second Test in Kolkata, is not bothered either way.
He just knows he is in the zone.
Dravid has been on a superb run since taking over as India’s top batsman from Sachin Tendulkar two years ago.
With an average of 58.45 — the best for any number three batsman in history barring Don Bradman — he is heading inexorably towards greatness.
Dravid’s 110 and 135 in Kolkata made him only the second Indian batsman, after Sunil Gavaskar, to score two hundreds in a Test more than once. He was named Man-of-the-Match in the Test, which ended on Sunday.
A man who chided himself every time he was beaten or played a false stroke, he sometimes stood at the crease for overs on end without being able to accelerate the scoring.
Right from his debut 95 at Lord’s in 1996, when Ganguly cracked 131, Dravid was upstaged by a team mate whenever he did well.
His centuries have moved from nine to 20 and his average from the late 40s to nearly 60.
When he struck a century against West Indies in Mumbai in 2002 he became only the fourth player in Test history, after West Indian Everton Weekes, Australian Jack Fingleton and South African Alan Melville, to score hundreds in four consecutive innings.
He was picked as the 2004 Youth Icon, ahead of Bollywood actor Amitabh Bachchan, in a nationwide poll conducted by music channel MTV.
Predictably, Dravid described the award as “humbling”.
With a keen sense of history, Dravid is well aware of all that he has achieved.
“Cricket is a learning process, I’m learning all the time,” he said. “I’m still trying to improve, I’ll keep doing that.”
