Indian batting superstar Sachin Tendulkar paid glowing tribute Friday to the never-say-die attitude of team-mate Rahul Dravid, who is retiring from one-day cricket. Dravid, 38, will bow out of short format competition after the fifth and final one day international against England in Cardiff on Friday, having already amassed 10,820 runs in 343 games. Nicknamed “The Wall” for his solid defence and unflappable temperament, Dravid is only the fifth batsman to have scored more than 10,000 runs in both Test and one-day cricket.
“A great thing about Rahul is that he has always loved to work hard, always trying to stay a step ahead of the game,” Tendulkar told the Indian Express. “When he started playing ODI cricket, he faced some initial difficulties, but he was never one to give up. He worked very hard on his flaws, and he made sure to fight it out.” Dravid made his one-day debut in 1996 against SL, but struggled initially before establishing himself as one of the most prolific batsmen in the middle order. He
has so far made 12 hundreds and 82 half-centuries in one-day cricket, with a career-best 153 against NZ at Hyderabad in 1999.
