Ricky Ponting recalls 'funny story' about Rahul Dravid's footwear from 2005 Super Series

Currently preparing the Indian team for upcoming India vs Sri Lanka 2021 tour, former skipper and current coach Rahul Dravid has his hands full this year. The veteran batsman will be taking with him a team full of youngsters that have shown great potential in international and domestic cricket, including a number of IPL 2021 stars like Chetan Sakariya and Rahul Chahar. Now many years after being retired, the Wall was treated to a massive blast from the past as Aussie skipper Ricky Ponting revealed a hilarious mix up he had had during the 2005 ICC Super Series. 

Ricky Ponting recalls Rahul Dravid's footwear gaffe from 2005

Speaking to Cricket Australia, former Australia skipper Ricky Ponting recalled a hilarious mix up between himself and Rahul Dravid at the ICC Super Series of 2005. "One funny story coming out of that Super Series, the outfield was quite wet and damp and I had basically instructed all of our guys that weren't bowling, so just the fielders and outfielders, that we have to go and get football boots to field because our cricket spikes would literally get ripped from the top and we'd fall over and slip over. I sort of felt that if we got footy boots, then it’ll probably be a real advantage for us in the field."

"A lot of guys that were a part of the team had caught on to the fact that we were getting around in our footy boots. I’ll never forget, on the day of the first game, we went down to the nets and Rahul Dravid was in the nets batting with footy boots. And you can imagine what they are like on the turf. He was trying to put his foot down on the hard surface and his foot was just slipping out. He'd seen us with them on and thought that we must be batting in it as well, but no, we'll just use those for fielding, thanks, Rahul". 

It seems, Ponting's idea must have been of some worth as the Australian team swept the one Test and 3 ODIs of the now infamous series. Playing against the World XI, which controversially had just one day to get together, the hosts - then ranked No. 1 in the world - and considered unbeatable, had little to no trouble cruising to victory in both formats.  

India vs Sri Lanka 2021 squads

Shikhar Dhawan (Captain), Prithvi Shaw, Devdutt Padikkal, Ruturaj Gaikwad, Suryakumar Yadav, Manish Pandey, Hardik Pandya, Nitish Rana, Ishan Kishan (Wicket-keeper), Sanju Samson (Wicket-keeper), Yuzvendra Chahal, Rahul Chahar, K Gowtham, Krunal Pandya, Kuldeep Yadav, Varun Chakravarthy, Bhuvneshwar Kumar (Vice-captain), Deepak Chahar, Navdeep Saini, Chetan Sakariya

Image Credits: ICC website