In Indian cricket, the bond between legendary players Sourav Ganguly and Rahul Dravid stood out for more reasons than only runs, as both stars shared a great camaraderie not only on field but also off the field. Recently, Ganguly revealed a fascinating behind-the-scenes story that highlighted how close Dravid came to losing his place in India's ODI team. During his playing days, Dravid was highly respected and considered to be the finest batter. However, his approach in ODIs always brought criticism. And Ganguly revealed that there were repeated conversations with selectors who suggested dropping Dravid from the ODI squad. However, Ganguly never doubted Dravid's value to the squad, backing him and standing defiant in his belief. 

"There was a phase when Rahul Dravid was getting picked in ODIs. But people used to say his strike rate was not good enough. Selectors would say maybe someone else needed to be picked. But I did not leave him, because if I had left him, it could have finished him,” Ganguly said on Raj Shamani Podcast.

Ganguly illustrated that India did not have a proper wicketkeeper-batter, while other teams like Australia had Adam Gilchrist, South Africa had Mark Boucher and Sri Lanka had Kumar Sangakkara, which prompted India to think otherwise.

“We did not have a wicketkeeper who could bat. Sri Lanka had Sangakkara, South Africa had Boucher, and Australia had Gilchrist. All used to bat. Our batting used to end at six. So we made him the wicketkeeper. We could play Kaif and extend the batting to seven,” Ganguly said. Ganguly said.

Gangly also recalled that with India not possessing a proper all-rounder, other players like Sachin Tendulkar, Virender Sehwag and Yuvraj Singh started bowling. 

“We did not have that kind of all-rounder. So Sehwag bowled, Sachin bowled, I bowled, Yuvraj bowled. Good teams had those all-rounders; we did not,” he said.