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[caption id="attachment_33824" align="aligncenter" width="580"] Rahul Dravid Turns 44. Image Source: m.dailyhunt.in[/caption] Internet Desk: Former India captain Rahul Dravid celebrated his 44th birthday on Wednesday. Dravid can be related with someone who symbolised grit, dedication and silent aggression. As he would himself probably admit, Dravid was not as talented as some of his other illustrious colleagues in the Fab Five or his other rivals who also had a decorated career batting at No.3 for their countries. But what this legend seemingly lacked in obvious talent, he compensated with blue collar work ethics. He romanced the odour of perspiration. If you looked at his weather-beaten Test cap bearing the number 206, you could guess how much work he had put in to get India out of a mess or set up a foundation for a famous overseas win. That he continued to wear that cap despite players getting new ones for every tour also highlighted how much he valued tradition. Headingley, Adelaide, Rawalpindi, Kolkata, Johannesburg, Lord's, Oval, Jamaica... the gems are endless. However, any celebration of Dravid would be incomplete without mentioning his safe as a church hands at slip which added to the potency of India's seamers like Javagal Srinath, Venkatesh Prasad, Zaheer Khan and Ishant Sharma. The confidence that every nick would be pouched empowered them to keep running in. More than the cricketer though, it is Dravid the man that has fascinated observers. One still remembers an interview where he hailed his coach Keki Tarapore as the man who taught him more than cricket skills and instilled the value of life skills like saying Thank You to the maalis who prepare and roll the net wickets. It is those skills that he is now trying to impart to his wards in the under 19 and India A teams. "Coaching is not just about making people good cricketers it is about preparing them to be good people", he told the BCCI website in an interview recently. When you bat ahead of Sachin Tendulkar as Dravid did throughout his career, the crowd, especially in India, wanted to see him get out and watch Tendulkar bat. Dravid was classy enough to make peace with that. But ask anybody in world cricket who was India's best Test batsman from 2001 to 2006 and they will tell you it was Dravid. Dravid should be an automatic choice for the lead role if Deewar was remade. After all, they didn't call him The Wall for nothing.