Dravid draws attention

Dravid8217;s record says it all. He made his Test debut with a battling 95 at Lords, and followed it up by topping the averages in South Africa, the West Indies and New Zealand, where he headed both the Test and One-day averages with 107.0 and 77.25 respectively.

He was sensational in the World Cup this summer, smashing 461 runs to be the leading run-maker with two back-to-back hundreds, and put on a record 318 runs, since bettered, with Saurav Ganguly at Taunton.

8220;I do enjoy the challenges of touring and playing cricket abroad,8221; Dravid said. 8220;I don8217;t know, maybe playing away from home tends to bring out the best in me.8221;

It is not just a case of attitude. It is also about technique. Dravid plays his shots mostly on the rise, relying more on timing than sheer power. On the slow sub-continent wickets, he has often not been at his best.

Ravi Shastri once said that Dravid needed to play with soft hands and place the ball between fielders to keep the strike rotating.

Dravid has often struggled when the ball did not come onto his bat and he could not reach out to bowlers, especially the slow bowlers. All this is changing.

This winter, he struck his first Test ton at home against the Kiwis and then set up a 331-run stand with Tendulkar in a one-dayer at Hyderabad, in which he contributed an unbeaten 153.

Dravid has said his limited overs success has not changed his role in Test cricket, which is often to provide an anchor in the top-order. 8220;I never really have gone out with an attitude to play a particular way,8221; he said.

8220;There have been situations in Test cricket where I have gone out and got runs at a pretty fast clip; at other times, batting up the order at No 3 in a team full of strokemakers, you are expected to lend some stability and solidity,8221; he said.

Dravid, who started playing cricket at 12 for his school in Bangalore, did well in the junior tournaments to climb up the ladder gradually. In this, he has been helped by Indian batting legend Gundappa Viswanath as well as a host of other cricketers from Karnataka. 8220;He has helped me improve my technique and concentration,8221; Dravid said of Vishwanath.