Former Indian skipper, Rahul Dravid was known for his eternal patience and replica of textbook Test match batting. In arguably one of India’s golden eras as far as collective batting strength is concerned, Dravid was that glue that kept the flamboyance of Virender Sehwag, Sachin Tendulkar, Sourav Ganguly, and VVS Laxman together. During his heydays, Dravid used to reveal the kind of energy he had to exert while batting those long hours in the middle.

Talking about his illustrious career during a podcast with Olympic gold medalist Abhinav Bindra, Rahul Dravid said, “If I look back at my career, that (channelizing the energy) was a game-changer. I was really able to channel my mental energy. I used to spend a lot of energy even when I was not playing thinking about my game, worrying about it, and reflecting on it. In time I learned that was not necessarily helping my batting. I needed to refresh and almost find a life outside of cricket.”

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The former Indian skipper and the current head coach said he was never to go score freely like a Virender Sehwag or Sachin Tendulkar but he found his way to combating pressure and battling against some of the best fast bowlers of his time.

Rahul Dravid explained, “Honestly, I was never going to be like Viru (Virender Sehwag). He found it much easier to switch off because of his personality. But I started recognizing the red flags, I realized when I was getting too intense. I knew I needed to find a way to switch it off but it was the mental side of the thing that you need to help yourself. It came down to you recognizing that this was as important to you as those extra hours in the gym and practice sessions.”

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The Indian coach concluded, “If you did all of that but were unable to switch off mentally, you are not going to have enough energy to play the game. As my career progressed, I realized, I was never gonna be someone who will be scoring quickly like a Sehwag did or maybe to an extent as Sachin did. I was always going to need patience. I loved that contest between me and the bowler, sort of tried to make it a one-on-one contest. I found that help me concentrate a bit more.”