More in the spotlight than ever before

More than usual, the spotlight at Mohali will be on Rahul Dravid. An outstanding cricketer in the form of his - or anyone's - life, he will now captain in a Test match, not an easy task, and never so in India. "It's yet to sink in; I was only told five minutes back," was his first reaction.

Instantly, typically, Dravid proved accommodating to the media's needs. "I wish I could give you the playing XI right now," he said, "but I've only just been told. I need to sit down with John Wright and Syed Kirmani. But if we can arrange something for later in the evening, I'd be happy to give you the XI."

Throughout his press conference Dravid displayed the equanimity and intelligence that have marked him always. He would not be overtly aggressive or bitingly sarcastic, as Sourav Ganguly might (most often to his advantage), but would still make his point.

He was asked about the pitches, and he managed to balance everything in his answer. By agreeing that the pitch at Ahmedabad was too dead, he sent the right message to the Indian board. By adding that it was hard to prepare pitches and that, like bats, perhaps one out of 10 work out perfectly, he showed himself to be empathetic to the ground realities that an Indian curator must work with. By saying that he would rather India win on good wickets than on vicious turners to avenge for the grass that New Zealand gave them last year, he showed himself to not be petty. And, by pointing out that, dead pitches or not, New Zealand haven't been able to take 10 wickets in an innings all tour, be it versus India, India A or the Board President's XI, he was able to send a signal to the opposing team.

But still, the greatest balancing act Dravid will have to perform is not while answering questions. It will be to ensure that somehow he is able to lead and yet continue to bat in this dream-like trance that he has been in for the past 18 months, even though, as he says, "it's only one match." With interest, the nation will watch him and commentators dissect him, for it is virtually inevitable that he will be given the job on a longer term before his career is out.

Dravid is at his pinnacle. He, till date, has scored 15 Test centuries (and four 90s). Out of these 15, nine have been made overseas; six of them have been made in the last year-and-a-half. Out of these 15, India have lost only once. Nobody in contemporary cricket with those many or more hundreds can claim this - not Matthew Hayden, not Ricky Ponting, both of whom have played for Australia in their - and Australia's - pomp. It is a staggering statistic. If these were Ganguly's statistics, he would have probably told us by now.

"I'll only know what it's like when I go through it," Dravid said, when asked if this might be a burden he does not at the moment need. A comparison with Michael Vaughan could be instructive here. Like Vaughan, Dravid was handed the job unexpectedly in a golden run. Vaughan, like Dravid, had a good one-day record as captain. (Dravid has won three of the four ODIs he has led in.) Vaughan, like Dravid, though to a larger degree, was a technically correct batsman who expressed himself with more and more strokes in time. Vaughan scored a matchsaving hundred the last time he wasn't captain, and was then unable to cross 33 in nine Test innings since.

True, it's only one match, but it will still be interesting to see how Dravid does. "I will not take the job lightly," he said. We didn't need to be be assured of that.