Suresh Raina has been a silent but deadly cricketer that the Indian cricket team has had playing for them.  

Having scored 5615 ODI runs, 1605 T20 runs and 5368 IPL runs, he is a champion of limited overs cricket and any team - be it national, domestic or a league franchise - has been lucky to have him onboard. 

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However there was one man who has been even more silent than Raina but has managed to reach the epitome of success with the team in the white and red ball cricket.  

We are obviously talking about Rahul Dravid, the ‘Wall’ who was every bowler’s nightmare in Test cricket and every coach’s dream project to work on.

Regardless of his batting prowess, Dravid’s name never emerges in the conversation around some of India’s best captains. After taking over as the skipper after Sourav Ganguly, Dravid led the squad in 25 Tests and 79 ODIs and during his tenure some of the biggest series wins came against West Indies, Bangladesh and England.

But for Raina, one of the biggest perks of playing for Team India was to serve under the leadership of Dravid. 

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Recalling how nervous he used to be back when he was a young cricketer who’d just received a call to play at the international level, the southpaw told us how it was Dravid who helped him settle in and get comfortable inside the dressing room. 

He said: 

“When you play at the highest level, you have a lot of responsibilities on your shoulders. Back then I remember Rahul bhai used to play, his man-management was superb. He had brilliant players like Sachin bhai and Anil bhai. Viru bhai and Gauti bhai used to play on the top and in the middle there was Dhoni and me.” View this post on Instagram

He continued:

“I remember, as youngsters, we used to feel nervous talking in the dressing room but Rahul bhai helped us feel relaxed. He used to talk to us about our families and was genuinely concerned about their wellbeing.”

It has been over eight years since Dravid hung his boots. He then went on to become the head coach of the U-19 Indian cricket team and that was India A and currently works as the boss man of the National Cricket Academy with the hopes of revitalising the infrastructure and use the facilities to produce world class cricketers. 

And even then, stories of his days as an active player and a leader continue to surface and only goes on to show that Dravid was simply a class apart. 

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