Rahul Dravid: One Of The Most Underrated Odi Player

Rahul Dravid also known as "The Wall" of Indian Cricket is one of the most decorated test batsman of all time. Rahul Dravid made his debut in test format first and made a brilliant 95 in his debut innings , along with another debutant Sourav Ganguly whose 131 runs innings probably overshadowed Rahul Dravid's knock. Rahul Dravid played several great tests knocks and is considered as one of the greatest in test format.

Everyone knows and rates Rahul Dravid as one of the best in test format,but what about Rahul Dravid the ODI batsman? His name is hardly taken in the list of ODI legends. But a career that lasted over 15 years has certainly had something special.

In ODI cricket Rahul Dravid has scored 10,889 runs at an average of 39.2 , which is quite low compared to the bar he has set in test cricket. Rahul Dravid had scored 12 centuries and 82 half centuries which includes a 22 balls half century which is 2nd fastest among Indian players. Beside being a batsman, he has captained India for 79 ODI matches and had a more than decent record. He has 42 wins in ODIs as captain. He never played as a WKB in his whole domestic career but when India was in crisis he had to do that too until MS Dhoni arrived. Keeping wickets didn't effected his batting at all, as he had struck 145 , the first matcg if him as Wicketkeeper batsman.

Rahul Dravid had a great ODI Career but its beginning wasn't smooth. His first 5 ODI scores were 3 , 4, 13 ,11 ,13. But soon he showed his class against Pakistan by top scoring in couple of matches for India.

Rahul Dravid since 1996 till the end of 1998 was in a transition period where he wad evolving as an ODI batsman.

In his first ODI of 1999 against New Zealand he scored a brilliant run a ball 123 that kickstarted his excellence for over 7 years. In the 1999 world cup he continued his brilliant runs and scored 461 runs at an average of 65.8 . Later that year he ammassed another century against New Zealand where he scored run a ball 153.

Between 1999-2005 Dravid averaged 43 in 210 ODI matches scoring 10 out of his 12 Career ODI centuries. His good form continued even in 2003 World Cup where he scored 318 runs in the tournament.

After 2005 his form dipped but he still continued to be an integral part of the team. Since 2009 he had hardly been part of the ODI team as youngsters took their spots in the team. Rahul Dravid played only 10 ODIs after 2009. Rahul Dravid's ODI career can be divided in 3 parts :-

Period. ODIs. Runs. Average

1996-1998 65. 1709. 31.6

1999-2005 210 7134 43

2006 onwards 68 1977 34.7

In the phase (1999-2005) Dravid was one of the most successful ODI batsman. In that era his strike rate of 72 wasn't too bad either. Out of the 343 matches he played, he had been a part of winning team on 160 occasions. His contribution in winning causes is also significant., scoring 5729 runs at 50+ average. Among all batsmen he played with, Dravid mostly had success with Ganguly and Tendulkar, putting together more than 4000+ runs partnership with each. In world Cups he has the second best average of all time. He scored 860 runs in 22 innings at a staggering average of 61.5 .

In Dravid's career the only blot was Australia. The most successful team had always found a way out against Rahul Dravid in ODIs against whom he averaged only 25. Against all other teams Dravid's performance were top class as he ended up scoring 10,889 runs, even in a format which is known to be outside his comfort zone, which proves how good he was as an ODI batsman.