Sourav Ganguly opened up about a little-known story from his days leading the Indian cricket team, talking about Rahul Dravid on Raj Shamani’s podcast. Back then, Ganguly said, selectors kept coming to him, asking him to drop Dravid from the ODI squad. They thought Dravid’s strike rate was just too slow for one-day cricket. But Ganguly didn’t budge. He believed Dravid was way too valuable, so he took matters into his own hands. He’d pull Dravid aside and tell him, “You need to play a bit differently. Stick in there.” And Dravid, being the kind of player he was, just adapted. He moved down to number five in the batting order and even took up wicketkeeping.
Ganguly talked about how India really needed a wicketkeeper who could bat. You know, other teams had guys like Sangakkara, Boucher, Gilchrist—these wicketkeepers were genuine batsmen. But India’s lineup always ran out of steam around number six. So Ganguly convinced Dravid to don the gloves. That meant they could fit Mohammad Kaif in at number seven, making the batting lineup a lot stronger.
He also mentioned how India didn’t have a proper all-rounder at the time. Building a balanced team was tough, so Ganguly, Sachin Tendulkar, Virender Sehwag, and Yuvraj Singh had to pitch in with the ball. He pointed out that strong teams had all-rounders and keeper-batsmen, tools India was lacking then. But, for Ganguly, making those tough calls was part of what it took to actually build a winning team.
