Why Rahul Dravid Declared the Inning When Sachin was on 194

Rahul Dravid has earned all the reputation in the world, but as they say, celebs never go without at least a single dark spot on their clothes and this dark patch on the career of Rahul Dravid came in Multan when he was a captain in the absence of Sourav Ganguly. While Sachin Tendulkar was batting and he was on 194, Dravid declared the inning for India, thus preventing a double hundred of Sachin Tendulkar.

No wonder, he got a lot of criticism from across the world and even Sachin was fuming with anger because of this incident. However, I think Rahul Dravid was right in declaring the inning because he had his reasons.

Some of the reasons which might make Rahul Dravid stand correct are as follows:

• In 2004, this was the same inning against Pakistan where Sehwag scored his first triple hundred. He scored 309 in the inning and India was 675 for 5 wickets in the inning. Well, almost 2 days were dissipated in this and Dravid would have not wanted to waste more time in turning the test a draw.
• After 2000, Sachin Tendulkar was high cautious when he was batting in the 90s or 190s. He would use a lot of balls to reach his hundred and many times, it was due to this nervousness that he got out without reaching a hundred. This could be one of the major reasons why Dravid considered declaring the inning instead of seeing the double hundred by Sachin.
• India was batting in the first inning and they still had to take 20 wickets of Pakistani players including veterans such as Imran Farhat, Yasir Hameed, Inzamam-ul-Haq, Mohammad Yousuf, Abdul Razzaq, and Moin Khan etc. These players were really good considering the non-experienced bowling lineup in the Indian team.

And though India won the match by an inning and 52 runs, who would have thought that the mighty Pakistani team would go out so cheaply in both the innings. This is why I don’t blame Rahul Dravid for declaring the inning. Had Sachin got out in 190s again, who would have people blamed then?