Rahul Dravid Should be Hailed for Lord's Conquest

Rahul Dravid - The man nicknamed 'The Wall' was the only one who stood tall amidst the ruins of India's dismal outing on their 2011 tour of England. It was not a big surprise really then that Dravid was invited by the Indian team management to mentor a very young side ahead of their current Test series in England.

And the results are showing. (Happy Times for India, But Let's not Think too far Ahead, Says Tendulkar)

Ajinky Rahane had said "I played with him at Rajasthan Royals and he was here with us before the Test series so. He told us to just believe in ourselves, just be confident and go and produce good cricket."

Murali Vijay added: "We all look up to him as a hero. When I was a youngster, I always saw Rahul bhai playing for India, the way he was organising his innings."

There's no doubt that Dravid is perfect mentor material. Years of experience, a good cricketing brain, lots of patience and respected by everyone. Murali Vijay in fact is the perfect example of how much of an effect Dravid's presence at the nets have had. (India Register Historic Win at Lord's)

At a time when people were still debating if Vijay could apply himself to the extremely tough role of a Test opener in foreign conditions, the Tamil Nadu batsman surprised the critics with a century in the first Test.

But it was the patience he displayed that has been exceptional.

No wonder then that his 247-ball 95 in the second innings at Lord's is being rated higher than the century at Trent Bridge.

Dravid has in fact said: "For me, his temperament and his discipline, his mental discipline has been excellent in this Test series. I think he has got to keep this going. I think when you are set and when you have batted well in a series, it's just two Test matches, it's a five- Test match series, it's really important to keep that same mind-set going right through the series."

"For both him and Rahane there, it will be critical. If India are to succeed in this Test series, both these guys have to have a big series not just a big Test match"

And it is not just the specialist batsmen in the Indian team who seem to have benefited from Dravid the mentor. Bhuvneshwar Kumar is currently the third highest run-getter in the series, with three fifties.

NDTV Cricket expert Sunil Gavaskar has said "You know you can't even measure what an impact he has made straight away. It's not just the batsmen. Don't forget the resistance showed by Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Mohammed Shami in the first Test and that could have only come with Dravid's impact, his influence. Because he was one who never gave his wicket away"

Gavaskar in fact had told NDTV a few months ago that Dravid would be an excellent candidate to coach the Indian team. It's not a surprise then that current coach Duncan Fletcher wants Dravid to play a bigger role in rebuilding Team India.