Rahul Dravid - The Wall stands Tall in the Golden Era of Indian Cricket

The game of cricket is the battle between bat and ball. It is about who loses patience first that determines the winner. Rahul Dravid was the master at staying patient for long, long periods of time. He won the battles more often. The stat that perhaps best sums up: Rahul Dravid is not the runs he made or the hundreds he notched up, but the number of balls he consumed over a Test career that spanned 16 years. In 286 Test innings, Dravid played 31,258 balls. Given that no other batsman has faced more than 29,000 deliveries, it puts into perspective the amount of hard work and sheer effort that went into scoring those 13,288 runs.

In terms of dedication to craft and working on achieving perfection, though, Dravid ranks second to none. That dedication fetched him just rewards, ensuring he scored runs in every country he played in, and finished his Test career as the second-highest run-getter, next only to Sachin Tendulkar. He is the first and only batsman to score a century in all 10 Test playing nations.
Rahul Dravid is regarded by many to be one of the greatest batsmen in the history of the game. He brought stability to their batting order, which was full of stroke-makers like Sachin Tendulkar, Virender Sehwag, VVS Laxman and Sourav Ganguly. Dravid always had a simple game plan and he stuck to it. It comes back to patience: he had the patience to grind out long innings and wait for the right ball to hit. He had his specific shots that he wanted to play, and he would wait for the bowler to pitch in the area where he was comfortable playing an attacking shot. That made him very difficult to get out.

It is said that when Sachin scores a century, you jump up and pump your fist. When Dravid scores one, you sit back and let the good vibes and happy emotions wash over you in waves. Dravid wasn’t the kind of person to ask for favours. In a country obsessed with Sachin Tendulkar, Dravid has fought his way to the hearts of a billion people and earned himself such sobriquets as "Mr Dependable" and "The Wall".

There are often comparisons made between Dravid and Sachin, and in a country where Sachin is treated as a God, Dravid never got his due credit. Dravid has also been involved in 86 century partnerships with 20 different partners and has been involved in 20 century partnerships with Sachin Tendulkar – a world record.

Below stats confirm on how important a role did they play in other's illustrious career. Test cricket’s two most prolific batsmen, Tendulkar and Dravid together fashioned many of India’s famous wins with these crucial partnerships over the past one-and-a-half decade.

Rahul Dravid's top 5 partnership summary

Partner	Inns	NO	Runs	Highest	Ave	100's	50's
SR Tendulkar	143	6	6920	249	50.51	20	29
VVS Laxman	86	7	4065	376	51.45	12	14
V Sehwag	60	2	3405	410	58.70	10	11
SC Ganguly	68	6	3294	194*	53.12	10	12
G Gambhir	47	1	2530	314	55.00	7	9

Sachin Tendulkar's top 5 partnership summary

Partner	Inns	NO	Runs	Highest	Ave	100's	50's
R Dravid	143	6	6920	249	50.51	20	29
SC Ganguly	71	3	4173	281	61.36	12	16
VVS Laxman	73	4	3523	353	51.05	9	19
M Azharuddin	42	1	2385	222	58.17	9	5
V Sehwag	22	0	1520	336	69.09	4	5

India has always boasted of a strong batting line up. With Rahul Dravid calling it a day, The Wall of the Fortress has been broken down and will be interesting to see how the next generation carries the legacy left behind by this true gentleman.