Rahul Dravid hit his 10,000th Test run today en route to his 25th Test hundred. It’s a little bit overshadowed by Sehwag’s triple hundred, but that’s pretty much the way it goes for Dravid.

Dravid was very much the support act for Sehwag yesterday, hitting 68 in a partnership worth 268. Stunning innings like Sehwag’s can’t happen without a batting partner though and it’s no coincidence that The Wall was protecting the other set of stumps during VVS Laxman’s sublime 281 against Australia as well. In between all the forward defensives he found time to tot up 180, which is some second fiddle - a second fiddle encrusted with rubies, played by a perfectionist, perhaps.

Today’s 111 saw Dravid’s average edge above that of the man who’s overshadowed him most throughout his career. Rahul Dravid averages 55.41 in Test cricket. Sachin Tendulkar now averages 55.31 after registering a duck. With Sehwag only adding 10 to his overnight total, perhaps he and Tendulkar were merely being gracious enough to give Dravid a day of his own.

We move that Dravid’s day becomes a national - no - international holiday, so that he’ll get the respect he deserves for all eternity. There’s nothing like a day off to heighten your appreciation of someone.

Tags: India, Rahul Dravid, Records, South Africa by King Cricket
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Virender Sehwag hit a typically outrageous hundred at the weekend against a group of bowlers we’ve never heard of. Some might say that it wasn’t testing enough to warrant a return to the Test side, but Virender Sehwag doesn’t really work like that.

Whether Virender Sehwag succeeds is largely down to him. He goes after pretty much anything, so even a half-volley can get him if it’s wide enough. The exact same delivery might find the edge of his bat one day or be pummelled by the middle of it the next. It just depends how he’s feeling. 29 today was neither here nor there though.

Rahul Dravid hasn’t actually been away, it just seems like he has. He must have some profound psychological problem with opening the batting, because while he’s looked painfully laboured as an opener in the first two matches of this series, having moved back to three (which isn’t all that different) he’s made a quite respectable 93.

Maybe you could get more out of Dravid if you made him open but didn’t let him know. His partner could walk out first and then shortly afterwards Anil Kumble could say: ‘Balls. Jaffer/Sehwag’s out,’ and Dravid could follow, convinced he was an invincible number three, rather than Mark Richardson with only a third of the shots.

India have turned a clearly dominant position into a so-so one by losing their last two specialist batsmen near the close of play. You shouldn’t do that against Australia.

We’ve deliberately made this post even more boring than our usual dross, because we’re still inwardly smarting at the groundswell of apathy that greeted our Matthew Hayden update the other day. That was better than five comments (one from us).

Actually, we’ve just read it again and maybe it isn’t all that good…

Tags: Australia, India, Rahul Dravid, Virender Sehwag by King Cricket
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He was a reluctant captain. He was a reluctant wicketkeeper. When will people realise: All Rahul Dravid is interested in is batting.

And batting and batting and batting.

Fancy a bowl, Rahul?

Tags: India, Rahul Dravid by King Cricket
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Some observers seemed surprised by Rahul Dravid’s innings of 92 off 63 balls as India won the second one-day international yesterday. Why? Dravid’s more than capable of doing this.

People get blinded by his careful approach to Test cricket, but he only plays like that because he thinks that’s the best way to score as many runs as possible. In Test cricket, scoring as many runs as possible is the best way for a batsman to influence the game.

In one-day cricket scoring as many runs as possible is also a good approach, but time is of the essence, so you have to try and cram as many as you can into a short span of time.

If we were Rahul Dravid, we’d rail at our being pigeon-holed as a ‘careful’ batsman. ‘It’s rubbish in this pigeon hole’ we’d say and everyone would listen; help us out of the pigeon-hole; and high-five us for no real reason.

Rahul Dravid should do that.

England should have played a spinner, by the way.

England v India, second one-day international at Bristol
India 329-7 (Sachin Tendulkar 99, Rahul Dravid 92, Andrew Flintoff 5-56)
England 320-8 (Ian Bell 64, Dimitri Mascarenhas 52, Piyush Chawla 3-60, Munaf Patel 3-70)

Tags: England, India, Rahul Dravid by King Cricket
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