1) Kevin Pietersen about Rahul Dravid:
In his book KP: The Autobiography, Kevin Pietersen reveals a special letter that he received from Indian batting legend Rahul Dravid.
The former English middle-order batsman and Dravid were teammates for Royal Challengers Bangalore during the second and third seasons of the Indian Premier League (IPL). It was during that time, that Pietersen sought the help of the Bangalorean on how to play spin.
In the letter, Dravid tells Pietersen to practice without pads against spin in the nets, so that he uses his bat more. He also talks about how the former English captain is a good player of spin despite all the criticism around.
Through out the letter, the former India number three remains his humble self and reminds Pietersen that his advice might not turn out well.
The advice seemed to have helped KP as a couple of years later thhough, he scored a brilliant 151 against a Sri Lankan side that included left-arm spinner Rangana Herath to win England a Test in Colombo. He repeated his heroics in Mumbai later that year, hitting a sublime 186 against India, which is often considered as his greatest innings as it was on a pitch that was producing venomous spin.
2) Virendra Sehwag on Rahul Dravid losing his cool:
One of India's finest batsmen ever, Rahul Dravid, is respected all over the cricketing world not only for his batting but for his patience too. During his playing days, seldom did anyone see Dravid losing his temper, be it the opposition players, teammates, officials, or anyone for that matter.
It is difficult to imagine Rahul Dravid throwing things around in anger, that too, a chair. However, this was an instance which actually happened and was shared by Dravid’s wife Vijeta during an interview.
Mrs Dravid revealed that she had once been told by the master batsman’s long time team-mate Virender Sehwag that he once threw a chair out of anger. The reason for Dravid’s livid reaction was the after-effect of India losing a home Test to England quite badly.
It was an incident about which Rahul Dravid had told Vijeta earlier, but he had skipped the chair-throwing part which Sehwag informed her about later.
3) Sachin Tendulkar on Rahul Dravid's infamous decision:
Stranded on 194 when stand-in skipper Rahul Dravid declared the Indian innings in the 2004 Multan Test, Sachin Tendulkar has spoken about the anger and shock he felt by the decision which “did not make any sense”.
In his autobiography ‘Playing It My Way’, Tendulkar reveals how hurt he was at the declaration and he told Dravid to “leave him alone” so that he could come to terms with his disappointment of missing out on a double century.
“I assured Rahul that the incident would have no bearing on my involvement on the field, but off the field, I would prefer to be left alone for a while to come to terms with what had happened,” Tendulkar writes in the book.
However, the batting legend said that the incident didn’t have any adverse effect on his relationship with Dravid.
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