da luck： Rahul Dravid has become an indispensable member of the Indian team andincreasingly looks certain to be the future Indian captain
Rex Clementine12-Aug-2001Rahul Dravid has become an indispensable member of the Indian team andincreasingly looks certain to be the future Indian captain. He was given ataste of the captaincy in the recently concluded Coca-Cola Cup after theone-match suspension handed out to Sourav Ganguly and he made the most ofthe opportunity by helping India win their first game of the tournament.He though denies having any immediate captaincy ambitions: “It was justdoing the job for one game because of an unfortunate incident. Right at thismoment I am happy to play under Sourav (Ganguly).”The victory marked a turnaround in India’s Coca-Cola Cup fortunes and theyeventually clinched a place in the final. However, for the eighth time insuccession they lost a one-day final, prompting further speculation thatthey lack big match temperament.”We didn’t play well on that day,” he admits. “In one-day cricket you haveto perform on the day, but I don’t see a problem, as long as we get intofinals. We are doing 90 per cent of the job right. I look at the positiveside of it. Look, how many sides have got into eight finals. Okay, we havelost eight, but hopefully we do better in the ninth.”Dravid initially was labeled as a Test match specialist only, but withexperience he’s matured and now become a very important member of theone-day squad. In the 1999 World Cup he was India’s highest run scorer aftertwo hundreds and in the Coca-Cola Cup he was India’s most consistentbatsmen.”There was a time I was labeled a Test player, I didn’t change many things,”he says. “I practiced hard and that was the key. I also spoke to few peopleand after the hard work things started improving.”Dravid was chosen to play for English county Kent in the last season and heperformed exceptionally well for the county whilst Sourav Ganguly struggledin English conditions. Dravid admits that the stint with Kent helped himimmensely.”It was a good stint with Kent and I really enjoyed my six months there,” hesaid. “It was a good chance to stay away from home and learn new things andnew conditions. Playing in Kent made me a better person and a cricketer.”With the one-day tri-series finished the attention now turns to thethree-match Test series that starts on Tuesday in Galle.”If we want to beat them we got to play really well,” he warns. “They areplaying in familiar conditions and that makes are job that much harder. Ifeel that this is going to be a hard series that is closely fought.”Sri Lanka’s recent Test record is poor. During the last 12 months they havelost home series against England and Pakistan and were hammered on a tour toSouth Africa. Meanwhile, India drew their last Test series against Zimbabweafter a famous three-match Test series against Australia”It doesn’t matter what we have achieved in the past, Sri Lanka are acompetitive side at home,” he says. “Whatever you say they are playing goodcricket at the moment.”He admits that the absence of Sachin Tendulkar is a big loss: “Sachin(Tendulkar) is the best batsman in the world and it’s obviously not easy toreplace him, but that’s how things are going to be. We are playing lot ofcricket and people are going to get injured.”In fact, he’s the only Indian batsman in the squad to have scored more than3,000 Test runs and he has to burden greater responsibility after injuriesto Tendulkar and Laxman. He is expected to move up the batting order in theTest series.Dravid says he is looking forward to his contest against MuttiahMuralitharan, the best off-spinner in the world: ” Murali (Muralitharan) isa great bowler, a truly world-class player and it’s always good to playagainst them and do well.”He disagrees with the view that the Sri Lankan bowling depends onMuralitharan: “He’s not Sri Lanka’s only bowler. They’ve got some classyfast bowlers and we have to play well against them as well.”India have their own match winning off spinner in Harbhajan Singh and thecontest between the two spinners is being keenly anticipated.”Harbhajan is a great bowler, as he proved against the Aussies,” he said.”He’s still young, being only 20 years old. Murali on the other hand hasbeen around for a while, so there’s no point in comparing the two of them.Harbhajan has the potential to achieve what Murali has achieved.”