File Pic: Rahul Dravid and Sourav Ganguly (TOI Photo)
NEW DELHI: Former India captain Sourav Ganguly has opened up about the behind-the-scenes battles he fought with selectors during his captaincy tenure to protect and reshape Rahul Dravid’s ODI career, revealing how close the batting legend came to being dropped over concerns about his strike rate.Speaking on Raj Shamani’s podcast, Ganguly recalled how Dravid’s place in the ODI side was repeatedly questioned by selectors who believed the team needed more aggressive batting options. The former skipper, however, stood firm in his belief that Dravid’s value went far beyond strike rate numbers.‘Selectors said his strike rate isn’t good’“Rahul Dravid… people used to come to me and say his strike rate isn’t good. Selectors used to say to look for someone else in ODIs, ‘marna padta hai’ (you have to be able to hit),” Ganguly said.But the former captain revealed he resisted the pressure, convinced that dropping Dravid could have permanently derailed his white-ball career.“But I didn’t drop him. Because ‘chhod diya toh khatam ho jayega’ (if I let him go, he would be finished),” he added.Ganguly said he instead worked closely with Dravid to adapt his game for the demands of ODI cricket. “So I used to go to him separately and tell him, ‘Jam, thoda khelna hai’ (you have to play a bit). And he was such a great player, he adapted. Played at number 5 for India, kept wickets.”Rebuilding India’s ODI balanceGanguly further revealed that Dravid’s evolution into a wicketkeeper-batter was part of a larger strategy to balance the side, especially in the absence of a genuine all-rounder.“We needed a wicketkeeper who could bat, and that allowed us to play Mohammad Kaif as an extra batter,” he explained.The former captain also highlighted how India had to compensate for the lack of all-round options by sharing responsibilities across the batting unit. “We didn’t really have a proper all-rounder either. So Sehwag bowled, Sachin bowled, I bowled, and Yuvi bowled.”According to Ganguly, building a competitive side required flexibility rather than rigid roles. “Toh team ko banana tha na (we had to build a team),” he said.‘Good teams had all-rounders — we had to create solutions’Reflecting on that era, Ganguly stressed that India’s approach was shaped by necessity as much as vision.“Good teams had all-rounders and keeper-batters, which we didn’t have at that time. Toh woh zaroori tha team banane ke liye (that was necessary to build the team),” he said.The approach not only prolonged Dravid’s ODI career but also helped India become more flexible in white-ball cricket, laying the foundation for a more dynamic unit in the years that followed.Ganguly’s revelations highlight how tactical decisions and internal debates behind the scenes played a crucial role in shaping one of India’s most balanced ODI eras — and how a willingness to back players like Dravid helped redefine roles long before modern cricket demanded it.
