Rahul Dravid
is likely to announce his retirement on Friday. Dravid, 39, has called a
press conference in Bangalore that will also be attended by N
Srinivasan, the BCCI president.
Dravid is set to be the first of India's senior-most cricketers -
including Sachin Tendulkar and VVS Laxman - to quit the game after a
season of speculation surrounding their future. His decision follows a
poor tour of Australia but he enjoyed a prolific run through 2011,
scoring five centuries - including four in the Caribbean and England.
However, he is set to captain Rajasthan Royals in the upcoming IPL
season.
His decision will end a career that started at Lord's in 1996, when
Dravid made 95. Since then, he has been a pillar of the Indian Test side
and played 93 consecutive Tests from his debut to December 2005. He
will finish with 13,288 Test runs - behind only Tendulkar - in 164
matches, with 36 hundreds at an average of 52.31. He also has 210
catches, a Test record, in addition to 196 catches in ODIs.
Dravid captained in 25 Tests, of which India won eight and lost six.
Under his leadership India cemented a newly won reputation for being
good travellers, winning Test series in Pakistan in 2003-04 - he
captained in two out of three Tests - West Indies in 2006 and in England
in 2007.
He will be remembered as one of the last classical Test match batsmen,
renowned for his technique and a willingness to bat through difficult
circumstances - and over prolonged periods - yet able to stroke the ball
around when the mood struck him. He was the anchor of India's famous
middle-order, keeping the innings together while the strokeplayers -
Tendulkar, Laxman and Ganguly - played a more attacking role. He
appeared to especially flourish in partnership with Laxman, never more
so than in the Eden Gardens Test of 2001.
His batting qualities and efforts were often overshadowed by the flair
of his team-mates yet they were brought into sharp focus over the past
year with India's Test team struggling through a period of transition.
Dravid showed his class on the tour to England in 2011. In a series in
which India were completely outplayed and none of their other batsmen
scored more than 275 runs in the Tests, Dravid amassed 461, including
three hundreds, two of them when opening the innings against a
high-quality pace attack. However, that was followed by a poor series in
Australia, which reopened the debate about his retirement.
