Rahul Dravid, ‘The Wall’, has seldom been in the limelight like Sachin Tendulkar has been, but it does not undermine his greatness. Statistics show that out of Tendulkar's 51 centuries, 11 have come in a losing cause & out of the 37 times that Dravid has scored a hundred, India has lost only 4 times. Three of those defeats came in the recent series against England, where the Wall was the only player to register a hundred.
But often Dravid’s greatness has been overshadowed by Sachin’s greatness. It might be due to their contrasting playing styles. Where Dravid is a technician & works hard for his runs, Sachin is an aggressive player and dominates the bowlers. But it does not mean Dravid is any less than Sachin. If Sachin’s the leading run scorer then Dravid holds the record for standing his ground for most number of hours by any cricketer. He has played over 5,000 overs. That is more than 30,000 deliveries! He is the only batsmen to have been involved in two 300+ runs partnerships.
Statistics reveal that more often than not it is Dravid who is holding the ground when India is in trouble. He was there with Sourav Ganguly in the 300 run partnership against Sri Lanka. He was there with Laxman in the famous Test match at Kolkata. He was there with Sachin in the 331 run partnership against New Zealand at Hyderabad.
Dravid’s been in partnerships with everyone, right from the openers to the number 10. He has been India’s best batsmen by far overseas. Dravid was the fastest to reach 9000 test runs in 176 innings. He has been India’s crisis man. He has opened the batting when India did not have an opener. He has kept the wickets when India required an extra batsman. He has captained the team when India was struggling. As you can see, Dravid has always kept nation’s interest before his own but has he been given as much credit as Sachin or for that matter any other player of his caliber should be given? The answer is no.