India’s 1996 tour to England was special in more ways than one. For it gave India two of its modern-day greats – Rahul Dravid and Sourav Ganguly.
Three other cricketers also made their Test debut – current India batting coach Vikram Rathour, bowling coach Paras Mhambrey and Venkatesh Prasad – during that tour. It was the Lord’s Test on June 22 that saw Dravid and Ganguly make their Test debut together. And both of them had a debut to remember with Ganguly scoring a hundred and Dravid notching up 95. 26 years after that fateful day in London, Dravid, the current India head coach, said he remembers every detail of those five days.
“There’s a large part of my career that I forget but that (Test debut) seems like yesterday. You know getting the privilege to play a Test match for India is something that I can clearly remember or visualise,” Dravid told India’s first-ever Olympics individual gold medalist Abhinav Bindra on his podcast ‘In The Zone.’
Dravid, who went to become one of India’s greatest cricketers, said he came to know about his Test debut barely 10 minutes before the toss. An injury to Sanjay Manjrekar had opened the doors for Dravid.
“Just 10 minutes before toss, Azharuddin told me that I’ll be playing because Manjrekar had sort of failed a fitness test and then just that feeling that came over. It was a mixture of nervousness and panic but also the sheer joy of knowing that my dream had come true,” Dravid said.
Dravid, who narrowly missed his hundred in that Test which ended in a draw, said he has no regrets about not being able to get to three figures.
“And luckily for me, we lost the toss, we were fielding and it gave me a little bit of time to settle down, and compose myself before going out to bat which was my primary skill. I remember so much about those five days than I remember about my career. Just walking out to bat, scoring my first runs. The shot that got me to fifty, being dropped by Nasser Hussain at point, getting more confident as the game progressed, going to and fro, enjoying those five days. Of course, getting out for 95… I have played that shot time and again in my head. A lot of people have asked me about missing out on that hundred. Yes, I was but if somebody had told me at the first morning of that Test match that I’d score 95, I would have taken it with both hands,” he added.