Rahul has been incredible, says Tendulkar

SYED FAHAD AHMED

KARACHI: Indian cricketer Rahul Dravid’s retirement has created a void at third position, in the Indian Test team says legendary batsman Sachin Tendulkar.

Speaking about Dravid’s illustrious 16-year career Tendulkar said, "Rahul has been an incredible player for India and for world cricket. Nobody is going to be able to replace Rahul in that position."

"You need someone to be dedicated, be committed and disciplined. The entire country will miss him because we were all used to Rahul padding up batting at number 3. However, these things will continue to happen because that's how the game goes around for years. All great players retire one day," the 39-year-old added.

Dravid retired from cricket the same month Tendulkar scored a tremendous century of centuries against Bangladesh in the Asia Cup.

After Dravid’s retirement the team saw a decline in their performance in England and Australia where it lost eight Test matches consecutively.

Tendulkar was part of both tours and believes it would be inaccurate to blame India's domestic structure for the team’s poor performance.

"I don't think we can point our fingers at our structure because with that same structure we hit the number one spot. So if there was something wrong with the structure, we would have never reached that spot," he concluded.