Dravid seeks to cap comeback

Rahul Dravid © Getty Images

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A third successive victory over England on Saturday will clinch the NatWest Series and provide a fitting Lord’s send-off for India’s old guard.

Although captain Rahul Dravid is refusing to rule out another tour of this country for himself, the great Sachin Tendulkar or Sourav Ganguly, the odds are stacked against all three making it back as veterans when India are scheduled to return in 2011.

Only Ganguly played a significant part in India’s most famous recent win at headquarters - Yuvraj Singh and Mohammad Kaif powering their team to an unlikely two-wicket success with three balls to spare against their hosts in a high-scoring triangular series final five years ago.

Dravid’s 2007 team already have a Test series victory under their belts, and if they can complete their recovery from 3-1 down to snatch this seven-match head-to-head it will be a perfect summer for the tourists.

“It’s been a good comeback for us already - and if we can win tomorrow, it will be a great comeback,” said the captain.

“We’ve played some good one-day cricket here before, so we have some very good memories and hope we can take some confidence from that.

“Someone’s written a good script for both teams, with everything to play for at 3-3.”

Dravid is delighted his team have managed to force a decider in a series which seemed to be going England’s way - and he has no doubts it is fair reward for their hard work.

“It’s set up beautifully with a last game at Lord’s for the end of what’s been a very good summer for us,” he said.

Sachin Tendulkar will make what is likely to be his last appearance at Lord's on Saturday © Getty Images

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“We’ve played really well in a very good summer of cricket. We’re confident but we know we’ve got to play well - and we’re under no illusions it could have gone either way at the Oval (in a thrilling sixth match on Wednesday), along with a few other very close games in this series.”

Win or lose, though, India will depart for the inaugural World Twenty20 on Sunday with their captain’s endorsement that significant improvements have been made.

“It would be great to win both series - but irrespective of what happens tomorrow, we will be taking a lot of positives from this summer,” he said.

“There are still some areas we need to work on for the future - whether it is some of our batting, ‘death’ bowling, the balance of our side. Fielding obviously comes up a lot too.

“But all in all it’s been a very good tour for us, performance-wise and getting to know our team - especially the resilience we’ve shown to keep fighting back when we’ve had our backs to the wall.”

Dravid never lost hope India could push England all the way - even when they appeared to be getting the worst of the argument after the home side kept their nerve to go 3-1 up in a tense match at Old Trafford.

A Duckworth-Lewis win at Headingley Carnegie and then this week’s last-over thriller at The Brit Oval followed - leaving Dravid with much reason for satisfaction.

“One of the great things has been we have had contributions right through the team - different people performing at different stages, rather than one person dominating the whole summer,” he noted.

“We knew we would have to really fight hard. But even after we lost that one to go 3-1 down, I remember saying I thought the games were really close.”

Dravid has been proven prophetic - and another epic at Lord’s would be no surprise to anyone.