Melbourne: Former caption to the Australian cricket team claims that he had persuaded the veteran cricketer Rahul Dravid from the thoughts of retirement from the test series. The bad form for the cricketer through last year was badly received by the board and media and had almost written off Dravid from the team. Ricky Ponting claims to have met Dravid during the last day of the series and have asked him not to retire. " I remember after our last series in India there were more speculations to the fact that Rahul Dravid was finished" the skipper recalls. "I had talked to him at the end of the series and told him 'Dont even think of retirement, because I just saw few sparks through your innings which does mention that the current phase will pass"
Rahul Dravid was much acclaimed for his accomplishments in the recent tour of England, where the team India had a clean washout of 0-4 series. The 'wall' as Dravid is popularly known had scored 461 runs in the series and this included three centuries to his bag. Where other players failed to show a consistent form it was the one positive that team India could carry back after the series defeat.
Ponting also added that ""I just said 'don't let them wear you down, don't let them get you down'. I received a similar text message before and after the Ashes from him as well," he added.
The 36 year old cricketer has not scored a century from January of last year and he hopes to regain touch in near future and finds his inspiration from Rahul Dravid
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