His room is full of gear that would have you believe he was maniacal about fitness
Anand Vasu29-Sep-2002His room is full of gear that would have you believe he was maniacal about fitness. There are three books on the subject strewn on the bed.There’s a large jar of the stuff you need to make protein shakes that high performance athletes use. There’s Arsenal v PSV Eindhoven on the telly and a song from a popular Hindi movie fills the room from a boom box. The laptop computer on the table has been switched off for the moment.I wait a few minutes, taking in the room and all its paraphernalia as Rahul Dravid takes a relaxing shower and returns cheerily to talk about his cricket.It was worth the wait.CricInfo: India have suddenly begun to chase very well. What’s brought that on?Rahul Dravid: “I think it began with us realizing that we’re not chasing well. We sat down and spoke about these issues a lot. We tried out various combinations and we’re coming towards the kind of combination that can do the job for us. We’ve obviously taken a bit of a gamble with me wicket-keeping. We’ve sacrificed the position of having a specialist ‘keeper. In an ideal world scenario I believe that you need a wicketkeeper-batsman.”If you have a Gilchrist or Boucher or Flower that’s fantastic. If you don’t then you need to make some adjustments and see what you can come up with. The other option is to have genuine all-rounders – like a Kallis, a Chris Cairns or a Shane Watson. We’ve struggled in both these areas. So we’ve got to take stock of what we’ve got.”There’s no use talking about what we don’t have. Instead we’ve said, ‘We’ve got a strong batting line-up, let’s pack it up and see what we can do.’ We started this off as an experiment, but we’ve had some great results in the last year and we’ve tried to persist with it. We’ve also shifted the batting order around a bit and everyone’s understood their roles, responsibilities and made a few sacrifices. This might push us out of comfort zones a bit and sometimes you get used to living in your comfort zones when things are going for you.”CI: And the move, how well has it worked do you think?RD: “I’m not saying this has worked for us completely. If you compare us to Australia and South Africa consistently we’re still a bit behind. But of the rest of the pack, when you remove these two teams, I think we’re right up there at the top.”CI: When you took up the job of ‘keeping as well as your normal duties, what were the biggest challenges?RD: “One of the big challenges when I took up the job was the fitness. I thought about what I need to do to make this work and the first thing on the list was improving my physical fitness. I’ve always worked hard on my fitness but I’ve had to work much harder now. Having Adrian (le Roux) around has been a great help. Whenever I need I can dip into his vast knowledge and resources and that’s been a great benefit to me. It’s been a great challenge and I’ve gone around and read a few books about these things. It’s not something I’m used to; people say Gilchrist and Flower do it, but it’s something they’ve done from childhood and their muscles and body parts are used to it. I’ve started keeping after 10 years and I still get the off aches and pains. I’m probably getting better at it as I do more of it and I think I’ll be doing it till the World Cup. It’s helped my game as well. When you’re focused on your fitness you get mentally tougher as well.”CI: If it came to it, would you don the gloves in Tests as well?RD: “I don’t think we’re so desperate that I’ll be asked to keep in Tests. If someone got injured and I had to do it just to stand in for them I would definitely do it. But I seriously don’t think I’m competent enough as a ‘keeper at the moment to do the job in Tests. Like I said before, the ideal situation is for us to find a wicket-keeper who can bat well. One of the young ‘keepers in India has to put his hand up and say here’s a great opportunity. They must think to themselves, ‘We’ve got Rahul Dravid to keep and that means there’s a serious opportunity for someone to get in and establish themselves.'”It’s going to be interesting to see if it will be Parthiv ( Patel) or Ajay Ratra or Thilak Naidu or Dahiya who us willing to say here’s a great opportunity for me. Sometimes you look at our middleorder in Test cricket and you see some of the young boys sitting out with the talent they have you feel it’s quite hard for people to break in. Here’s a spot that is up for grabs and it’ll be interesting to see who puts his hand up and is counted over the next year or so.”CI: When during the game against South Africa did you really think India had the game in the bag?RD: “I never felt that we had the game against South Africa in the bag till the very last over. When it reached a situation where 21 was needed off six balls I knew that it would take something really special for them to pull it off. I thought we had a chance when Harbhajan picked up two wickets in one over. At that time I thought there was still an outside chance. Till then we really had our backs to the wall they were batting so well it didn’t look like we had much hope. We probably had three wickets in one over because Herschelle [Gibbs] had to go off and we didn’t know he would not come back. In the space of seven or eight balls we virtually picked up three wickets and that’s where we felt we had a chance.”CI: The bowlers bowled to some clever fields in the semi-final against South Africa. The man in the circle for the sweep was kept especially busy. What was the planning there?RD: “To be fair the guy at 45 is something we have used against South Africa and a lot of foreign teams. It also depends on how people play. I think the bowlers, especially Harbhajan, bowled a great line. You can talk about a lot of strategies and set fields and do that sort of thing, but in the end the bowler has to bowl the right line.”CI: As a keeper you seem to be going up to Ganguly more with advice and opinions. Is this a conscious thing?RD: “As wicket-keeper you get to see a lot more of the game. Rather than fielding at deep fine-leg or third man. You can see whether the ball is swinging or reverse swinging, what lines the bowlers are bowling and that sort of thing. There are times when a bowler gets too defensive and when you notice that they are being consistently hit one side of the wicket you can go and tell them they where they’re going wrong. If you’re standing behind the stumps you have more of a case and bowlers tend to listen to you a bit more.”CI: England was particularly good for you, but is that the best of Rahul Dravid?RD: “People have told me that the best time to be a batsman in international cricket is when you’re between the ages of 29 and 33 and I’m realizing that. You have a bit of experience under the belt, you’re game is better developed. You’re also not trying to prove things to other people so much as prove things to yourself. I really wish there’s more to come, though. England was good and it’ll be fantastic to have a few more tours like that.”CI: Some batsmen set goals for themselves in terms of statistics and milestones. What gets you going?RD: “I will not be able to tell you my exact batting average or how many runs I’ve made in Test or one-day cricket. I know what range these things are in, the approximate numbers. I’m not really into the core statistical part of it. More than that I enjoy the characters and the attitudes. Why some things work and others fail and that sort of thing. I never look at statistics as indicators of performance.”CI: How do you deal with criticism? If I said to you now, “Rahul Dravid is boring” how would you react?RD: “I’ve got better at dealing with criticism over the years. I think it’s part and parcel of the sport I play. I don’t really go out of my way to read praise or criticism. Even if I know that someone has written a great piece about me I wouldn’t go out of my way to pick it up and read it. I have to say though that I have benefited from criticism – when things were pointed out both in person and in reports. I guess I’ve matured enough to understand what’s good for me and what isn’t. You’ve got to realize that people have a job to do – they have to criticise and analyse the game. A lot of them are under pressure to do certain things and write about things in a certain way.”I tell a lot of young cricketers that if you want to play cricket at this level you have to accept these things. Some times people don’t have the right motives and that is upsetting. When people have a hidden agenda it bothers you. If I know the person and that he has the interest of Indian cricket at heart and genuinely loves the game I have no qualms in listening to him and his criticism. It might be justified in a lot of cases.”