The 14th edition of the Indian Premier League began with a bang with Royal Challengers Bangalore starting off with a last-ball victory against the defending champions Mumbai Indians. However, what created more hype than the RCB-MI encounter was a TV commercial featuring Rahul Dravid. Dravid who is regarded as a calm and a composed character who hardly loses his cool is seen losing his temper during a road rage. He is animated as is also seen breaking a car’s mirror in anger. Twitterati lauded his acting skills after seeing a different avatar of Dravid.
Regarded as one of the greatest batsmen India has ever seen, Dravid formed the core of the Indian batting line-up ever since making his Test debut back in 1996. All through his career, we have hardly seen Dravid lose his temper and the closest he came to losing his anger was during an MI-RR clash where Dravid was mentoring the Rajasthan Royals. After Aditya Tare hit that famous six and went off in a celebratory run, Dravid threw his cap away in disgust.
Dravid’s Karnataka and Indian teammate Venkatesh Prasad reacted to Dravid’s video and shared his own version of ‘Indiranagar Ka Gunda’ moment, the phrase which went viral after Dravid was seen saying this in the commercial.
Prasad shared a collage of his famous dismissal of Pakistan batsman Aamer Sohail during the quarter-final of the ICC Cricket World Cup back in 1996. Sohail was batting brilliantly and had just smashed Prasad for a boundary. He looked animated and pointed his fingers towards the cover boundary as if to say “ I am also going to hit the next one there, fetch it if you can”.
What transpired in the next delivery is etched in the Indian-Pakistan cricketing folklores. Sohail had a brain fade moment and went for a mighty heave down the leg side which turned out to be an awful shot from Aamer. Prasad bowled the right area and the stumps went for a cartwheel. A famous send-off followed and that wicket set the tone for a famous Indian victory.
Referring to his Indiranagar ka Gunda wala moment, Prasad tweeted, "Me to Aamir Sohail in Bangalore at 14.5 - #IndiraNagarkaGunda hoon main," the 14.5 referring to the 15th over of Pakistan's innings.