Tanya Aldred: we will miss Test match specialist Rahul Dravid; his duel with Shane Warne was thrilling

Back in July 2000 the old ground was saying goodbye to first-class cricket — a victim of poor pitch reports and an alluring Rose Bowl flouncing her wares over in West End. The summer sun was meltingly gorgeous and there were ice-creams in the press box. The salt on the warm wind seasoned the skin and seagulls patrolled the ground for rogue cheese and onion crisps.

The final championship game at the ground was between Hampshire and Kent, which for that season meant Shane Warne and Dravid — riches unimaginable today. And the match became Warne against Dravid, flamboyance against rectitude, passion against calm, genius against near-genius.

Warne, who had claimed supremacy over Dravid, pulled every one of his multiple tricks; Dravid, who had claimed he could read Warne from the hand, watched, waited and masterfully dispatched; the holiday crowd who had paid just £9 to get in sat in rapt concentration. The winner? Dravid, with 137, 73 not out and a Kent victory to his name. And as he walked off after his 137, every Hampshire player, every spectator and every journalist, stood and applauded.

To see such a duel, such brilliance somewhere so unexpected, only added to the thrill.

I’ve always had a soft spot for Dravid. With his good-boy’s haircut, old-fashioned parting and his long lean but slightly awkward limbs, he has more of the air of an excellent GP than an international athlete.

He has taken the No 3 spot in the Indian Test line up, the spot of princes — Ponting, Richards, Gower – but without a whiff of the romance that comes with it. For a while he even had to suffer the indignity of being booed when he came out to bat at home, because he wasn’t the next player in, he wasn’t Sachin Tendulkar.

He has borne the tribulation of being the least lauded of India’s Olympian batting line-up with a quiet shrug, possibly of relief. With neither the pizzazz of Virender Sehwag, the worshipped touch of Tendulkar, nor the silky stroke play of VVS Laxman, he got lumbered with the nickname 'The Wall’ — not, surely, an epithet he conjured up as a dreamy young boy batting on the streets of Bangalore.

And how unfair! He is so, so much more than a stolid, red-brick defender.

His wrist can flick with exquisite grace, his timing can take your breath away, his calm creates chaos in an opponents’ mind. He is a classical Test match specialist, neat of shirt and of stroke. Who knows, with the ubiquity of Twenty20, whether he is a dying breed. His willingness to compromise, move positions, take the gloves, captain the side, practise diplomacy and concentrate, concentrate, concentrate has helped India out of many a hole.

He is also, and by the by, the most successful slip-catcher in Test history.

And in his finest hour, at Eden Gardens, 10 years ago this March, he and Laxman changed the course of cricket history. Their fifth-wicket partnership of 376 took India from certain defeat to the brink of what was to be an amazing victory against Australia.

There is a photograph of the two of them walking off undefeated on the fourth day, their young faces dazed, triumphant and exhausted. Never have whites seemed more iconic. India’s victory on the fifth day ended Australia’s run of 16 Test victories in a row; and kick-started a triumphant period which may only be coming to an end now — as England rise and Dravid, Tendulkar and VVS prepare to dust the shelves for whatever is the Board of Control for Cricket in India’s equivalent of a carriage clock.

When Dravid made 95 on his Test debut at Lord’s in 1996, he was overshadowed by a century by fellow debutant Sourav Ganguly and Dickie Bird’s tearful farewell.

Fifteen years on, his au revoir to Test cricket in England will be overshadowed by tearful farewells to Tendulkar.

I didn’t see Dravid at Eden Gardens 10 years ago, and I didn’t see him at Trent Bridge last week, but I did see him do battle with Warne over four wonderful days at Portsmouth, and I feel truly lucky.

If you are lucky enough to be at Edgbaston on Sunday, wish him well.