Shoaib Akhtar reveals why Rahul Dravid was the toughest batsman to bowl against

Shoaib Akhtar recently admitted that Rahul Dravid was the toughest batsman he had ever bowled to. Dravid was known as a batsman who had a lot of temperament and patience while batting especially in Test cricket and has won many matches for India in his 16-year illustrious cricketing career. He had registered his highest individual Test score of 270 against arch-rivals Pakistan at Rawalpindi in the 2003/04 season where he gave a tough time to all the bowlers including Shoaib himself.

Meanwhile, Akhtar also spoke about an incident where he and Shahid Afridi had come up with a trick to dismiss Rahul.

'Rahul Dravid will take a lot of time ': Shoaib Akhtar

Recalling his on-field rivalry with the former Indian skipper while speaking to former Indian Test opener Aakash Chopra on the latter's official Youtube channel, the pace icon said that they used to bowl length balls to a batsman like Rahul Dravid from close to the stump, aim the gap between bat and pad and try to hit the ball on the pad.

The Rawalpindi Express went down the memory lane i.e. all the way back to a 1999 final match between India and Pakistan that was played in Bangalore. He revealed he and Afridi had told each other that Rahul Dravid will take a lot of time, Shahid had then persuaded Shoaib to send Dravid back early or else he would play for long.

The ex-speedster then added that after he had hit the champion cricketer on the pad, he straightaway appealed for a leg before decision and urged the umpire to raise his finger but to no avail. Furthermore, the cricket pundit also added that even though the decision was not given in his favor, Pakistan had the last laugh as they ended up on the winning side (registered a comprehensive win by 123 runs.).

Even Dravid could not do much damage as he was dismissed by Azhar Mahmood for just 25. 

Rahul Dravid's illustrious cricketing career

Dravid is one of the fewest batsmen to have amassed over 10,000 runs in Test and One Day Internationals. He was asked to keep wickets by his then captain Sourav Ganguly during the 2003 World Cup (till November 2004) and he was impressive behind the stumps as well. 

Ganguly's captaincy ended in 2005 after his fallout with former Australian cricketer/captain-turned coach Greg Chappell.  Dravid who was Ganguly's deputy till that point in time succeeded him in 2005 and captained the national team till 2007. Under his tenure, Team India beat Pakistan 4-1 in away ODI series in early 2006, registered their first-ever Test series win against West Indies on Caribbean soil after a long wait of 35 years, won a Test series in England the following year and registered 17 consecutive wins while chasing in One-Day International cricket.

READ: Gautam Gambhir Says Rahul Dravid Was A More Impactful Captain Than Sourav Ganguly