London: It took Rahul Dravid 15 years, but he has finally made it to the honours’ board at Lord’s, a ground which is like home.
Back in the summer of 1996, Dravid fell for 95 on his Test debut, in an innings where fellow-debutant Sourav Ganguly got 36 more.
On Saturday, though, Dravid wasn’t to be denied (103 not out). He was dropped on 42 by Graeme Swann, off the absolutely brilliant Stuart Broad, but that can hardly be held against him.
Almost all the attention had been on Sachin Tendulkar, with just about everybody wondering if he’d get his 100th International hundred.
So big a draw was Sachin that even Mike Brearley, who’d been chatting with Mark Nicholas in the lounge area of the media centre, promptly moved to his seat when The Master took guard, at the fall of Abhinav Mukund.
“Got to see Sachin bat,” Brearley quipped. Then, turning to Nicholas, who accompanied him out of the lounge, he said: “I wonder who is more nervous, the batsman or the bowler (Broad)...”
Sachin didn’t get anywhere close to a hundred, falling for 34 to Broad, who’d been troubling him with well pitched up deliveries which swung.
Dravid, however, kept building brick by brick and his commitment to the team’s cause got rewarded in the form of his 33rd Test hundred.
V.V.S. Laxman, dropped on zero in the same over as Dravid, didn’t take advantage of the let off by Andrew Strauss, but the former captain really rubbed it in for England.
“Another fantastic innings from Rahul... I’m delighted for him... Understandably, the focus was on Sachin, but Rahul held his own, never lost concentration and played for the team,” is how the talismanic Sunil Gavaskar saluted the centurion.
Speaking to The Telegraph, Gavaskar added: “Right through his career, Rahul has been in Sachin’s shadow, but that hasn’t bothered him one bit.”
Dravid, for his part, said: “It does feel great... Not only from a personal point of view, but that I helped the team get through a difficult period... I’m not looking at the hundred as the end of a 15-year wait, but it’s nice that I’ve now got what I missed on my debut.”
Classy as ever, Dravid didn’t commit himself when asked if he was looking ahead to a couple of more seasons of international cricket. “Like Sachin, I live in the present,” he maintained.
Broad (four for 37 instead of six for whatever) lauded Dravid. “He showed fantastic patience... The way he left the balls outside off was a highlight...”
On the eve of the series-opener, Broad wasn’t a certainty in the XI. After the first innings performance, where he struck the perfect length, he’s booked himself a berth for the remaining three Tests.
Behind by a massive 188 on the first innings (incidentally, Broad felt the follow-on wouldn’t have been enforced), India have their backs to the wall.
With Zaheer Khan unlikely to bowl, Mahendra Singh Dhoni may again have to turn his arm over. That’s hardly a great prospect.
The pace will have to be forced by England, for it’s not easy getting decisive results at Lord’s. Just how much should the target be? The answer won’t be easy, though.
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