Dour Dravid out of the doldrums

The unbeaten knock of 65 -- a veritable assortment of jabs, nudges, edges, mishits, drives and pulls - may not stand out for its aesthetics but would definitely rank among the most valuables runs Rahul Dravid had ever scored as he finally clambered out of the hole. Walking out to bat on a chilly, gloomy morning soon after the side had lost its most potent batsman is hardly the ideal recipe to revive the sagging form of an off-colour batsman who has aggregated a pathetic 322 runs from his last 10 Tests. But loads of toil and a pinch of luck finally did the trick and in the end, Dravid managed to get the huge monkey off his back with a laboured knock, which would finally help him breath easy. As captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni had predicted yesterday, the first job for Dravid was to get to the 30-run mark. "Once he passes that 30-run mark, he would get his confidence back," Dhoni had predicted yesterday. However, even that seemed a task beyond Dravid as he poked, missed and almost perished early in his innings. He blocked the first ball he faced from James Anderson with a big stride forward, considered a positive sign. But he had just opened his account when his fluffed pull looped over before landing in the no man`s land between the square and fine leg, much to the relief of the Karnataka batsman.
He, however, subsequently managed to properly execute the shot off Anderson and it turned out to be his first boundary in five innings. Dravid looked far more confident in the post-lunch session and he announced that by reaching for a Monty Panesar half volley and driving it through a packed offside. "He played a very important knock today, both from his personal and the team`s point of view," Gambhir said. "We were six for one and the ball was doing a lot. At that stage, we really needed a big partnership and I think he tackled the seamers really well. He is a legend of the game with 10,000-plus runs under his belt. Who am I to comment on him?” "But I think after this one innings, his confidence would be high and he would continue to do well," Gambhir added. England coach Peter Moores was definitely not amused that Dravid chose England to claw his way back into form but said he was not surprised. "He is a fantastic player we have seen playing very well in England, both in international and domestic cricket. Good players don`t become bad overnight... The longer he stays, the settled he gets and by the end, it was Rahul Dravid, all hard work.” "He is a good player and you expect it from them at some stage because that makes them the players they are," added Moores.