'Lean forward and get ready to catch': Suresh Raina recalls Rahul Dravid's plan to dismiss Kamran Akmal

Every 90s kid remembers Rahul Dravid as the impenetrable wall who had unparallelled resilience and classic batting skills. Apart from his batting prowess, Dravid was also a very insightful captain. He had taken on the captain’s responsibility for a short period but was very good at the job, according to Suresh Raina. The middle-order batsman had played under the leadership of Dravid in his early days and recently shared how visionary the latter was. Talking an about India vs Pakistan One Day International match in 2006, Raina gave insider’s knowledge into Dravid’s mind as a captain. Speaking to Kapil Dev during an interview with ABP News, Raina revealed that Dravid had guessed Kamran Akmal, who was batting at the time, would go in for an aerial shot and asked Raina to come at short point and be ready for a catch. [caption id=“attachment_1567351” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] File image of Suresh Raina. Getty Images[/caption] And interestingly, Akmal was out in the next ball. The fourth ODI in the series was being held at Multan and Pakistan had only managed to score 14 runs in six overs. For the seventh over, Irrfan Pathan was given the ball and in his second delivery, wicket-keeper batsman Akmal was at the crease. Akmal was dangerous during those days and was capable of scoring quick runs in the initial overs. So Dravid asked Raina to “lean forward and be ready to take a catch”. Pathan’s delivery on the off stump was readily hit with power by Akmal. But the ball ended up in Raina’s hands. “There was a rule at that time to keep catching fielders in the 15 yards. So Rahul bhai asked me will you stand at point? I said ‘yes please tell me where to stand’. He said lean forward and be ready to take a catch,” recalled Raina.