Rahul Dravid and Virat Kohli: When the cricket giant met the next big thing

Rahul Dravid and Virat Kohli: When the cricket giant met the next big thing

In the mid 2000s, India under the leadership of Sourav Ganguly reached remarkable heights and a major chunk of the success goes to none other than his deputy, Rahul Dravid.

He weathered the most hostile of storms and was India’s best batsman during this phase, helping the side grow strength to strength. At that time, he wasn’t just the most valuable player in the side but to brands, he was amongst the most saleable ones. He played international cricket till 2012 and undoubtedly is one of the greatest batsmen to have graced the game.

In the above picture, we see Dravid during his heydays posing with teenage budding cricketers from the National Cricket Academy. While everyone is busy posing for the camera, not missing the rarest of moment, at extreme left we see a young boy in cap catching a glance of the great man standing beside. Perhaps he is looking at the heights he wished to climb.

Few years later, the teenager led India to under-19 World Cup triumph in 2008. Later that year he made it to the national team and went on to play with Dravid. For him, there has been no looking back since then. Virat Kohli has emerged as one of the modern cricket giants and the new poster boy of Indian cricket. In 146 One-Day Internationals (ODIs), Kohli has notched up 21 hundreds with an average close to 53, while in 33 Tests; he has 10 hundreds from 33 Tests. There’s little doubt that he is a great in the making.