Cricket Australia remembers Rahul Dravid after Steve Smith breaks 38-ball scoring drought

Australia plundered 454 runs in their first innings of the ongoing New Year’s Test against New Zealand at the Sydney Cricket Ground (SCG). Marnus Labuschagne slammed his fourth Test century and later converted it into a massive score of 215 to boost the Australian total. Amidst the run-fest at the SCG, Steve Smith went 38 balls without scoring on Day 1. The prolific run-scorer finally nudged a Neil Wagner delivery towards square leg for a quick single to get off the mark on his 39th ball.

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Cricket Australia remembers Rahul Dravid after Steve Smith’s dry spell

After scoring his first run, Steve Smith went onto score 63 from 182 balls. However, his patient-filled first run reminded viewers of a similar dry spell by Rahul Dravid 12 years ago. In 2008, India were facing Australia in the second Test of the 2007-08 Border-Gavaskar Trophy at the same ground. Rahul Dravid opened the innings alongside Wasim Jaffer and his score was hindered at 18 for an hour.  

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Rahul Dravid reached 18 from 58 balls during his partnership with VVS Laxman. It took him another 40 deliveries to take his score from 18 to 19 as the SCG crowd cheered him sarcastically for his single through extra-cover. During his run-scoring drought, Dravid looked solid in defence as the right-hander was either middling deliveries or leaving them successfully with ease. While comparing Steve Smith’s innings with Rahul Dravid, Cricket Australia took to social media and uploaded a 90-second video commemorating the legendary Indian batsman's effort. Check out the video posted by Cricket Australia down below.

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