Rahul Dravid
Since his Test debut at Lords in 1996, Rahul Dravid’s performance has more often been overshadowed by some extraordinary performances from other star players. Be it his debut at Lords or the epic Kolkata test against Australia in 2001; Dravid had to be satisfied with the role of a supporting partner.
So it was obvious; when the time came to choose a new captain in 2000 after the match-fixing saga, Sourav Ganguly was the first choice and Dravid rightly became his deputy. But it was 2005, some unfortunate turn of events forced Ganguly’s ouster from Team India and Dravid became the new captain.
Dravid led India in 25 tests and 79 ODIs with some amount of success. But even the calm and dependable Dravid faltered while handling the pressures of the captaincy after a while. Following India’s disastrous performance in the 2007 World Cup, Rahul Dravid had no other choice but to resign from captaincy. In an interview with the BBC in 2007, Dravid admitted “I enjoyed the captaincy, I loved it, but it can get tough after a while and some of the enjoyment can go away, So I thought it was the right time to step aside.”
Dravid, however, continued to play under Anil Kumble and later under MS Dhoni for almost four years. In these later years, he was back to at his best with the bat and averaged 50+ in tests since 2009.