India losing Dravid is like SA losing Kallis: de Villiers

NAGPUR: Rahul Dravid is as important for India as Jacques Kallis is for South Africa, said visiting middle-order batsman A B de Villiers,
insisting that the experienced right-hander's absence will hurt the hosts in the Test series starting on Saturday.

"The number three spot is the biggest one according to me. People don't realise how big a spot that is. A guy like Dravid has stood like a rock under pressure for the Indian side and to lose that is like us losing Kallis. You can't replace a guy like that," said de Villiers on Thursday.

His younger teammate and rookie left-arm pacer Wayne Parnell too echoed similar views on the absence of Dravid from the Indian line-up for the series opener.

"Rahul is a major loss to the Indian team but there are guys like (VVS) Laxman, (Virender) Sehwag and (Gautam) Gambhir who can get big hundreds," Parnell said.