Former Indian cricketer Rahul Dravid revealed that during the early part of his career, he was determined to earn the respect of the likes of Sachin Tendulkar, Sourav Ganguly, and VVS Laxman. Speaking on the podcast Haal Chaal Aur Sawaalwith Ashish Kaushik, he explained how much it meant to him that these players saw him as someone who truly belonged in the team.
For Dravid, respect came from performing in tough situations and proving his value to the team. “You want to earn Tendulkar, Laxman, and Ganguly’s respect. You want them to say ‘ok, this guy can also play. He deserves to be in this room with me’. You want to earn that, and that comes with performance and doing things. That comes with putting runs on the board and playing in difficult conditions or situations. So that in itself was a motivation,” Dravid said during the podcast.
He admitted that sharing the dressing room with such cricketing greats was a huge learning experience. “I don’t think I was copying them, but certainly learning things from them as well, not only Laxman. It made my game a better game, sharing the dressing room and partnerships with Sachin Tendulkar, Virender Sehwag, Sourav Ganguly, VVS and even Gautam Gambhir for a while. You are learning from these guys, watching them prepare, play certain shots and how they go about doing certain things. And you are picking up stuff. You are being challenged and pushed by them,” Dravid explained.
Dravid further said that observing how these players prepared, played shots, and handled pressure made him stronger. “There is no doubt that all of them made me a better player, helped me achieve my potential, and I hope I did a little bit of that for them as well,” he concluded.
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