So 100 centuries was reached at Lord’s on Saturday. Not by Sachin Tendulkar on his own, of course, but by a tripartite middle-order combination of Tendulkar, Rahul Dravid and VVS Laxman, as Dravid became the first of this India team's batsmen to have their name etched on the honours board here.
Dravid’s cerebral century was his 33rd in Tests, to add to Tendulkar’s 51 and Laxman’s 16. Everyone was still talking about Tendulkar, but Dravid was the only Indian doing the walking. It was a masterful innings.
This is where it all began for Dravid, back in 1996 when he made his Test debut along with Sourav Ganguly. In a fascinating precursor to a long and understated career, Dravid made 95, but was upstaged by Ganguly who made 131.
Mind you, had he made a double century Dravid would still have been in the shadows; it was umpire Dickie Bird’s last Test match!
And so the back seat was empty again, and Dravid gladly took it. He is an old-fashioned batsman, a barnacle in the age of bashers.
While most stride out carrying blades resembling railway sleepers, Dravid prefers something much skinnier. He relies on touch rather than power, playing the ball so much later than the modern generation who generally rush at the oncoming ball like enraged bulls.
Dravid likes playing in England. He excelled for Kent in county cricket and was the leading run scorer in the 1999 World Cup here. What’s more, his 148 at Headingley in 2002 in typically seamer-friendly conditions was a masterclass in the art of tricky Test-match batting
They call him ‘The Wall’, a nickname he hates, but it is not, excuse the pun, without foundation. Indeed that base, an immaculate forward-defensive stroke, seems to be made of the very best concrete.
Delve deeper into the statistics and you realise that along the way yesterday Dravid passed Ricky Ponting’s 12,363 runs to place him second in the all-time run scorers in Test cricket. The trouble is that Tendulkar has 14,726.
But Dravid won’t mind. He’s comfortable where he is.
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