Agencies

Former Indian opener Gautam Gambhir rated Rahul Dravid highly in terms of overall contribution for Indian cricket, even more than current BCCI chief, Sourav Ganguly.

Over the years, Indian cricket hasn't only been blessed in terms of quality bowlers or batsmen at their disposal, but also have found able leaders, who set the path for excellence for the next batch.

It all started with Sourav Ganguly's leadership, as the national side commenced the 'repair work' post the match-fixing scandal. While Ganguly brought in fresh faces and backed them to the core, he also made full use of his senior mates, such as Sachin Tendulkar, Rahul Dravid, VVS Laxman, Anil Kumble, Javagal Srinath, etc.

Though most hail MS Dhoni after Ganguly's era, Dravid also held the responsibility of the side for a brief period. Many remember his captaincy for India's miserable run in the 2007 World Cup, however, the former captain had several achievements as well.

Under him, India won its first-ever Test on South African soil, defeated England and West Indies in their own backyards in 2006 and 2007 respectively and became a much better side in chasing totals. Apart from his leadership, Dravid remains an icon for performing exceedingly in several roles for the team's sake in crisis. Some of them are: keeping wickets for a balanced combination, playing as a finisher in the latter part of his ODI career, opening the innings in Tests, protecting the batting line-up with his solid defence against the new ball, etc.

In today's times, he remains an ardent servant of Indian cricket, being the head of the National Cricket Academy (NCA) after successfully stamping his authority as a U-19 and India A coach.

Thus, former Indian opener Gautam Gambhir hailed Dravid and made a big claim on him. Gambhir said during Star Sports show, �Cricket Connected�, "I made my ODI debut under Sourav Ganguly, I made my Test debut under Rahul Dravid. It is so unfortunate that we do not give enough credit for his captaincy as well. We only talk about Sourav Ganguly or MS Dhoni and now about Virat Kohli. But Rahul Dravid has been a fabulous captain for India.