In ODI format, 'Wall' Dravid to take guard one last time

Cardiff: Indian batsman Rahul Dravid was without any sense of loss as his One-Day career draws to a close on Friday against England here but today admitted that he had to work harder on the shorter format of the game than he did in Test cricket. Dravid, who would retire after playing his 344th match on Friday in an ODI career spanning 15 years, said he would not dread retirement even when it’s time to quit Test cricket. [caption id=“attachment_85183” align=“alignleft” width=“380” caption=“Indian batsman Rahul Dravid. Philip Brown/Reuters”]  [/caption] “It does not feel like I’m finishing in some sense. I will still be doing the same things I have been doing in last two and a half years. But I had to work harder on my one-day cricket than in Tests,” said Dravid who would turn up for the last time for India in ODIs in coloured clothings tomorrow. “I wouldn’t dread quitting. I don’t think after such a long period of time you don’t dread the day. You recognise time would come when you would have to move on. Retiring wouldn’t make much change in my life,” he told a press conference on the eve of the fifth and final ODI. “The Test series against West Indies is coming up. There is still a few days off, then back to fitness and practice. Nothing would really change. Nothing is going to be different from tomorrow onwards,” he said. He expressed satisfaction that from being a player considered not suitable for ODI cricket, he went on to score more than 10,000 runs in the 50-over format also. “When I started playing, I wasn’t recognised as a one-day player. There was a lot more learning I had to do. I was dropped in the middle of my career, had to learn some lessons and it helped free up my Test cricket as well. I ended up playing over 300 games for India,” said Dravid who is the seventh highest ODI scorer with 10,820 runs. “It gives me a lot of satisfaction (to reflect) that I had a good Test and one-day career. At one stage, I probably wouldn’t have said it myself. In many ways it has been a very pleasing and satisfying career,” he said. PTI