On Rahul Dravid's 45th Birthday, Watch The Incident When His Footballing Skills Had Shocked The West Indies Players

The sight of Rahul Dravid standing in the popping crease with his bat in hand was enough to send chills down the spine of any bowler in the world. Regarded as one of the best batsmen in the history of cricket, Dravid earned the title of “The Wall” for his impeccable batting. Gifted with a batting technique that was nearly impossible to breach, Dravid got the title of “The Wall’ because of innings such as the 270 he made in more than 12 hours against Pakistan in 2004.

In an illustrious that spanned well over a decade, Dravid shared in a world record 19 Test century partnerships with Tendulkar, became the first number three to score 10,000 Test runs and is one of the handfuls of the batsmen to have scored more than 10,000 runs in both the formats of the game.

But more than the statistics, Dravid will always be remembered for his near perfect batting. He was a terror for bowlers all over the world. And the way West Indies reacted after Dravid somehow managed to survive a close call proves how the opposition desperately wanted to see his back on the cricket field.

The incident occurred in the third Test when West Indies toured India in 2011. Dravid was agonizingly close to being bowled off a Devendra Bishoo delivery but somehow managed to survive it thanks to his brilliant presence of mind. Dravid defended the delivery, but it somehow went towards the stumps and was looking primed to disturb the timbers. But just when it looked the ball would hit the stumps, Dravid brought out his footballing skills to kick the ball when it was inches away from the stumps. And as soon as it happened, all the fielders had their hands on their heads in disbelief while their skipper Darren Sammy even went on to exchange some words with Dravid. But the gentleman he is, Dravid just ignored Sammy’s taunting and went straight to the dressing room for the tea break.

The former India skipper, who is celebrating his 45th birthday on Thursday (January 11), had gone on to score 82 in the innings. Here is a clip of that incident.

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