A Case for Rahul Dravid

The Indian selectors’ decision to “rest” Rahul Dravid for the first two ODIs against Pakistan is appalling to put it softly. The job of selectors in not to please people and a place in the one-day team is not anybody’s birth right, forget about Rahul Dravid. What is Dillip Vengsarkar afraid of and whom is he trying to fool by saying that Dravid has been rested? Does he think that out of all the mad cricket fans in India Dravid himself will take the line that he has been rested? If the selectors are really looking forward and they believe they have to look forward, then please use a straight face and declare that X, Y or Z has been dropped. The chairman of selectors first tells that Dravid has been rested and the next line is he has to prove his form and fitness in domestic cricket. Did he really hear those two contradicting lines in his mind before speaking in front of media? If Rahul Dravid really needs to prove his form and fitness then why was he “rested” from the challenger series? The more I think about this, the more I’m getting convinced that there is more to Dravid’s resignation from captaincy then visible to the naked eye.

By the time anybody reads my blog the team for the last three ODIs might have been announced. I just can’t stop thinking how chaotic that meeting will be. They asked Dravid to prove his form and he did in a way none of the future looking chairman’s recalled players have done. Yes you are right; I’m talking about Sourav Ganguly and Virender Sehwag. Both of these batsmen’s performance in the domestic level had been average when they were called back into the team. The logic Vengsarkar used during Ganguly’s return is that nothing can substitute experience. To his credit Ganguly has performed credibly after making his come back. Even if you believe the selectors are now looking for form and fitness, it’s hard to justify what criteria Virender Sehwag fulfils. To be honest his form in the T20 world cup was just above average and if one half century in the challenger series proves anybody’s form then why the young and in form batsmen like Suresh Raina and Manoj Tiwary are not there in the team. One can argue Sehwag is a proven match winner. My simple answer to them is that has he won more matches than Dravid for India! Now by performing well in the first opportunity Gambhir has made things more complicated for the selectors. I just want to give one example here to validate why Dravid should be in the team. In the last one-day series against Australia Brad Haddin produced two match winning innings when got the chance because of Ricky Ponting’s injury. But as soon as Ponting became fit, Haddin was dropped and could not get a chance even at the cost of the totally out of form Brad Hodge. Players like Dravid do not replace anyone in the team; they have their own place in the team. Flamboyance aside Rahul Dravid has been the best batsman, best team man, best player for India in the last 10 years and yes definitely better than Sachin Ramesh Tendulkar as far as results are concerned.

It was really amusing to see that some in the media are writing that even Suresh Raina and Manoj Tiwary have scored double centuries in their respective Ranji games. When will our media grow up? It is completely unfair for Raina and Tiwary to get compared to Dravid. They might go on to become the next stalwarts of Indian cricket, but at this point of their career they should simply be compared with each other not with the already great Rahul Dravid. Some argue they should be blooded into the team now otherwise it will be late and they might loose form and interest. If they are playing cricket for any other reason than pure love for the game then they will last the distance anyway. Do our media know how many good seasons like this Mike Hussey and Stuart Clark put in year after year until they earned their Baggy Green? We need players like them if we want to become world beaters.

Although this post is about Rahul Dravid and already long enough I just want to mention one more unprofessional behavior of our selectors. In their last press conference they told that they want to watch Dhoni for two more games before deciding on the test captain and soon after news came in that Sachin has declined test captaincy, Vengsarkar gave the statement that Sachin was the selectors’ choice. They continue to contradict their own statements within a matter of few hours. Although the feelers are already there according to “reliable sources” all over the media that Dhoni is going to be the test captain, I won’t be surprised to see someone else actually becoming the captain.

To sum it up, Rahul Dravid should be brought back into the team at the earliest, not because it is his birth right but because he is still the best number three batsman after Ricky Ponting in ODI cricket.