He works harder, longer and pushes his limits even now. Simply said, he likes the pain.

There was a moment just after Rahul Dravid had been dismissed for 119 that showcased who he truly is. He got out as he has so many times – to an inside edge from 18-year-old part-timer Kraigg Brathwaite.

His first reaction was not of disappointment or even of surprise. It was pure, unadulterated anger. He was livid with himself. For he, in his mind’s eye, had given his wicket away and if there is anything he hates more than a meek surrender, it is giving his wicket away. And he had done just that with the day drawing to an end – it lasted just three balls more before the umpires called play off due to bad light.

Of course, many would point out that he had no reason to. He had scored a century after all; batted for a long time – 207 balls which was more than Virender Sehwag, Gautam Gambhir and Sachin Tendulkar combined, he was also the top-scorer for India on a day when the rest of the top-order excluding Laxman had failed to convert their starts.

But if he had not reacted with anger... it wouldn’t be the Dravid we know.

After all, this is the guy who makes his way to the National Cricket Academy every morning and works hard, so hard that now, at 38, he looks fitter than he did at 23. And perhaps he is too. There is no flab, his veins jut out along his arms and his cheeks have a gaunt look about them. Every hour spent away from the cricket ground is spent planning for the moment when he takes guard in India colours again.

His contemporaries, some of whom have retired, look at him in awe. Tendulkar’s cut down on his practice. At a dinner in New Zealand, he spoke about how his practice needs were dictated by ‘quality not quantity.’

“I know exactly what I want from each practice I do. I go out with a goal in mind. Once I get there, I stop,” said Tendulkar. “I don’t need to practice for hours now. There was a time I used to do that. Not now.”

Anil Kumble had done the same as his career was coming to an end as did many others. But Dravid is the opposite. He works harder, longer and pushes his limits even now. Simply said, he likes the pain.

Why else would someone bat 30302 ball in Test or stay at the crease for over 41000 minutes? He likes to believe that the more he sweats in practice, the easier it is for him in the middle. And that’s true – in his case it seems to be working like a charm.

“Everytime I feel something’s not right, I get in the nets and do what I love doing most: I practice,” Dravid once said. “And I work on my fitness.”

He may have been inspired by the Tour De France champion Lance Armstrong, who once said: “Pain is temporary. It may last a minute, or an hour, or a day, or a year, but eventually it will subside and something else will take its place. If I quit, however, it lasts forever.”

But being inspired and actually coming out and doing it, day in and day out is completely another story.

Perhaps what drives him is his mortality. As great as he is – he has always looked at the likes of Brian Lara and Sachin Tendulkar with awe. They often play shots that Dravid dream about. But if he could look at things from a different perspective, a phrase he likes to use a lot, he will see that they regard him in the same light as well.

In his last seven Tests, Dravid has scored five centuries – in conditions as different as they can possibly be and still he is hungry; hungry and angry at every ball he misses. What drives Dravid to work as hard as he does? What drives him to push the limits? What makes him want to slog it out when he could almost effortlessly slip into the commentary box?

Understand that and you understand the man. He not only reads about the game but he lives by it too.

His innings on Day 1 was fluent -- a strike-rate of 57.48, 9 fours and 2 sixes – yes, two sixes – is a sign that he is probably in the best touch of his career. Every time he steps out to bat, he expects to score big because he’s played enough cricket to know that eventually this phase too shall end.

There has been hysteria in certain quarters over Tendulkar’s elusive century and it somehow conspires to overshadow the quiet brilliance of Dravid but for how much longer will that continue?

With each match, for a change, it’s Dravid who’s casting the shadow.