Cardiff, Sept 16: 344 and done. Rahul Dravid bids adieu to the 50-over format with the fifth ODI against England on what has been a dismal tour for the visitors. Fans and colleagues of The Wall will be hoping his last outing in the blue jersey is a happy one for the team. Dravid goes into the game as the seventh highest run-getter in ODIs with 15205 runs from 343 matches. The former India captain, who made his ODI debut in 1996 against Sri Lanka, has proved to be an all-weather cricketer who has reinvented his game to suit the needs of the team. The selfless and persevering cricketer has rightfully won himself a place amongst the game’s all-time greats at the end of an illustrious limited-overs career.

Recalled into the one-day side after a two-year hiatus, Dravid will be looking to help the World Cup- winning team avoid the ignominy of a winless tour when he takes the field in the fifth ODI here at Cardiff.

Excerpts from Dravid’s media-interaction ahead of the fifth ODI at Sophia Garden’s in Cardiff:

On whether he has all his boxes ticked as he looks back on his ODI career

Yes, I think so. I wasn’t [a] part of the winning [2011] World Cup side so that’s probably one box that I didn’t tick, but I am still happy. I think it was a great highlight of my career to watch the team, a lot of guys that I have played with, go on to win the World Cup. It was probably the one thing that I didn’t sort of tick off, if you can call it that.

On whether the tour of New Zealand in 1998, where he did exceptionally well, was the turning point

Definitely one of the big moments in my career. I had been dropped for a big part of 1998, I wasn’t playing one-day cricket for India and I knew it was a critical opportunity for me. I managed to get [the] opportunity and bat for some very good performances in the Test matches. I got an opportunity to stay back with the team and play in the one-day series and I got hundred in the first game. That sort of gave me the confidence that all the work that I had put in when I was away from the team was bearing fruit and yes, I could succeed in one-day cricket as well. I went into the ‘99 World Cup and was the highest scorer and those six months in my mind established that if I kept working hard and if I kept improving, I could have a successful one-day career as well.

On the contribution of wicketkeeping to his overall ODI game

If anything my wicketkeeping helped me in the sense of getting a lot fitter because I realised if I had to keep and still score runs for India, which I desperately wanted to do, I had to be fit. I worked harder on fitness thereon and maybe that’s something that helped me in the longevity of my career. The highlight for me is the fact that I played for so long. When I first started to play cricket, Test cricket was the be all and end all when we were being coached as youngsters and we were playing. Nobody talked about wanting to play one-day cricket for India; all we were told was that you are going to be a Test cricketer, so our game and our mindsets were attuned to that. When I grew up and after the ‘83 World Cup, one-day cricket became a huge thing in the ‘90s and I was still able to adapt and play a significant amount of cricket for India. I think for me that is a highlight in itself.