Mahendra Singh Dhoni is known all over the world for his sharp cricketing brain and game awareness. India’s captain in the shortest format of the game is popular for pulling off some brilliant moves on the field. But it is not just him who is good at it.
This clip is a proof that even former Indian captain ‘The Wall’ Rahul Dravid was no less a master field-planner. In this video, you will see how he along with Suresh Raina planned the downfall of Kamran Akmal in a One-day game.
Before this catch, Suresh Raina had gone to Rahul Dravid and asked him whether he should set himself Silly Point to the fast bowler, which is a fielding position parallel to the batsman on the off side. The suggestion was given keeping in mind that Kamran Akmal liked to play in the air, to which Rahul Dravid agreed. On the next ball, Kamran Akmal did the mistake for which the Raina was placed at that position and the catch went straight into the hands of the then young Raina. He did not do any mistake and caught the ball and the move to place him there had paved off.
It was an impressive decision making from captain Rahul Dravid who had placed him at that position. Usually, when we talk about partnerships, we talk about the ones between batsmen and bowlers but this was a unique partnership between Raina and Dravid, the one between a fielder and a captain. Ramiz Raja, who was in the commentary box at that time, had said, ‘A genius move by Rahul Dravid’. Indeed it was one. But had it not been the excellence of Raina as a fielder, the moved would not have yielded any result.