5 Best Test Knocks of the Last Decade

3.)Rahul Dravid 146* v/s England, The Oval 2011

Ohh, how many times has he done it. You can have the Tendulkars, the Laxmans but this chap was the one who stood up against the swirling tide when it mattered the most. India after winning the 2011 world cup was on a high and they were quickly brought back down to the ground by this English team in the ‘English summer’.

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The 4th test of the series was at The Oval in London, but till then the series was already lost by the Indians. Dravid was in a scintillating form throughout the series. He finally scored his century at Lord’s and had scored 3 hundreds apart from other important knocks in the three tests till then. Dravid even opened the innings in 5 out of 8 innings in the tour. He hated opening and he still did it, and he did it in style.

Back then, there were talks in India before the series began that Dravid had to be phased out slowly out of Test cricket. The way Dravid responded was not only great, but it spoke volumes about his mental strength and his stature. He came into Oval test, probably his last with nothing to lose. He played a magnificent innings, holding one end on the pitch. He scored an un-beatan 146 when India were asked to follow-on. As Gautam Gambhir was still feeling the after-effects of concussion, Dravid again come out to bat after 10 minutes. Only the third Indian after Gavaskar and Sehwag to do so.

Dravid had played some amazing knocks for India, many more important than this knock, but this knock and all his knocks in this series will be remembered for a long time.