Throughout his career, Rahul Dravid has had a fixation for perfection. He’s known to shadow-practice his shots before a dining table till he gets it right. First to arrive at nets, last to leave.
To hear the rattle of stumps thrice in Melbourne — he was bowled off a no-ball too — must have hurt.
Determined to iron out his technique before the Sydney Test, Dravid requested coach Duncan Fletcher to have a close look at him. Fielding coach Trevor Penny did the throwdowns from a shorter distance at nets.
In the second innings of the first Test, the ball sneaked through a yawning gap between Dravid’s bat and pad. Apparently, Penny felt that Dravid wasn’t leaning enough on to his drives, while Fletcher wanted his body and shoulder alignment to move in one line while pressing forward.
Interestingly, Dravid is close to a record that he will not cherish. He’s been bowled on 51 occasions in Test cricket. According to a report, Australian captain Allan Border has been bowled 53 times in Tests, the highest by any batsman.
Dravid has been dismissed ‘bowled’ in both innings of a Test in four matches. VVS Laxman has been bowled in both innings of a Test match on five occasions — the most by an Indian. Besides Dravid, two Indians — Chandu Borde and Bhagwat Chandrasekhar — have been bowled in both innings of a Test on four occasions.
New Zealand’s John Reid holds the world record for being bowled in both the innings on most occasions which is eight.
Virender Sehwag, too, had a long batting stint at nets. Sehwag is never far from a wisecrack; when Fletcher came by the side of the net to look at his technique, the Delhi-dasher said, “What’s this, I just can’t see the ball.”
As a worried Fletcher moved in closer, Sehwag remarked, “It’s the hangover of last night.” Fletcher soon moved away from his corner.
The tailenders also received quite a bit of attention in terms of batting practice. Zaheer Khan was one of the early ones to pad up at the nets. By the look of it, Virat Kohli should remain in the XI.
Kohli was almost taking the cover off the ball with his shots. The two selectors, Narendra Hirwani and Mohinder Amarnath also overviewed the camp.
