Former
captain and one of India’s most technically sound batsman, Rahul Dravid
picked Glenn McGrath and Muttiah Muralitharan as the toughest
bowlers he has faced during his illustrious career in
international cricket.
Dravid,
who earned the sobriquet ‘The Wall’, for his immaculate technique, ended
his 16-year career with over 13,000 Test runs and 10889 runs in One-day
Internationals.
“As
far as fast bowler is concerned, Glenn McGrath was the toughest I have
faced, I have played him at the peak of his career and he was truly a
great bowler. When he was bowling well it was very difficult to judge your
off stump,” the 42-year-old Dravid said during an interaction with fans
on the social networking site ‘Facebook’.
He
added, “He kept challenging you, kept testing you just around that off
stump. He was a very aggressive bowler irrespective of whether he was
bowling his first or second over or the 25th over, he was always at you,
probing and asking questions,” Dravid, who is coaching the junior
India side, said about the Australian pace legend.
Dravid
felt Sri Lanka’s legendary spinner Muralitharan was the toughest to
counter when it came to slow bowlers.
“Spinners…Muttiah
Muralitharan was the best I have played against. Murali was an extremely
skillful bowler, he could spin the ball both ways, not by little bit but
by a long way. It was very difficult to pick and read. He had
great consistency and control,” Dravid said.
Asked
about his best moments in the Indian dressing room, Dravid recalled
winning the Test series in Pakistan in 2004.
“Best
moment in dressing room was winning the Test series in Pakistan, winning
the Test in Australia at Adelaide (in 2003-04). It’s always a great
feeling to win a Test or a Test series because the boys work so hard for
five days, for the whole series to achieve their goal.”
Dravid
lavished praise on current India opener Murali Vijay for his good run with
bat in recent times.
“I
really think Vijay has improved technically as a batsman, a lot over the
last couple of years, from the first he came into the team. When he first
came into the team there were times when he would get stuck at the crease
but lately, over the last couple of years, his technique has been superb.
“His
judgement of length and line has been quite exceptional. His performance
in very difficult wickets in England and Australia and in some of the
turning tracks here has been fantastic.”
Dravid
hoped that the combination of Ravichandran Ashwin and Ajinkya Rahane could
better the feat achieved by him and Anil Kumble in close-in catchings.
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