By ICF Staff
August 31 2009

Dravid's recall to the ODI team, at a time when India is supposed to be one of the best if not the best ODI team in the world, is a regressive step by Srikkanth's board of selectors.

Rohit Sharma's ouster from the team, admittedly due to a lack of performance, could hardly have led to a more unexpected choice for the upcoming series against Sri Lanka and South Africa.

After the troubles of the Indian ODI team against fast bowlers in the West Indies -- a series India won, by the way -- led the selectors to conclude that Rahul Dravid, a man who has not been in the ODI team for two years and is on the cusp of retirement, is best fit to teach the players about how to face short-pitched deliveries.

Instead of selecting someone like Virat Kohli, who shone in Australia as captain of an emerging India team recently, the selectors decided to go with a near-retired player who played poorly in ODIs in the last year of his ODI career, has not played domestic cricket for a couple of years, and has only the second season of IPL to his credit in a shorter format.

The world's two top-ranked batsmen are Mahendra Dhoni and Yuvraj Singh, so the ODI team cannot be considered lacking in top-notch batting experience. They have not lost many ODI series of late, so panic can't be at issue.

The move to select Dravid at the expense of rising stars is an eccentric one by the eccentric Srikkanth, who has vocally defended the move by his committee. India may well continue to win, but such a selection tactic cannot help and must be condemned.

The Return of Dravid

Discussion started by Indian Cricket Fever (IP Logged), 31/08/2009 14:56

Indian Cricket Fever
31/08/2009 14:56

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Shikari Shambu
31/08/2009 16:40

Why regressive? We are talking about a guy who scored 10,000+ ODI runs and who is still playing international cricket. There is a problem with most of the youngsters against short ball and the first step to solve the problem is admit it. champions Trophy is an ICC event and the least we can do is to give a chance to somebody who has done it before.

It will also send a strong message to youngsters and a reminder as to whose (big) shoes they are trying to fill.

Dint Imran Khan come back to ODI cricket at 40+ years for a world cup? He came out of retirement too, remember? And we all know what his contribution was.

Age should be a deciding factor when we are talking about equal talent,skill and temperment. As of now, Dravid stands like a colossus among the contenders.

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Spirit of Cricket
31/08/2009 17:45

Could Virat Kohli have scored all those runs in Australia if he had a problem with the rising ball? I doubt it. Which brings up the question of why not him. He's the future, not Dravid. Besides we have the number 1 and 2 ranked batsmen, who have plenty of experience, so it's unclear what Dravid brings.

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round rock
31/08/2009 18:03

anil,

we have NOT seen what virat kohli could do against raising deliveries. if selectors have seen and know something that we didnt know, lets give them a chance. we had same perception on raina, rohit a year back. now you know what they can , can not do.

raina is struggling even in nets againt the bowling machine. only dravid, sachin could handle it. dhoni could manage it in his style.

that doesnt mean we should comletely shut the door on youngsters. guys like nayar, rohit, raina, kohli should spend more time in domestic games, A tours and some masala games.

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Shikari Shambu
31/08/2009 18:28

Quote:

Anil
Could Virat Kohli have scored all those runs in Australia if he had a problem with the rising ball? I doubt it. Which brings up the question of why not him. He's the future, not Dravid. Besides we have the number 1 and 2 ranked batsmen, who have plenty of experience, so it's unclear what Dravid brings.

Future is later. Now is Present. Our present determines our future. Presently, Dravid has lot more things backing him (from the past) than Kohli has backing from present ( for future).

To equate the quality of bowling Dravid faced with what Viraat faced is ridiculous.

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ananthd
31/08/2009 21:12

Dravid sucked in ODIs for the last 18 months of his career and has sucked in Tests as well for a long time(2 years now).....

Besides, the only basis for Dravid's selection seems to be his stellar record....

For:

1. He has not played any domestic List-A for K'taka/South Zone for the past 2 seasons.

2. Nearly no ODIs for the last 2 years.

Only picked based on T20(IPL) performers or as a "Thank You" Gift for his ODI service....

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JayJ
01/09/2009 04:04

Ananth, dravid did has play Ranji last year and did well too. His form in tests in NZ was pretty good, not great. his IPL season in SA this year was good and his team was in the finals. His strike rate was up there in IPL. So he was doing good last few months. Combine that with problems for Raina, Rohit and Yusuf and a missing Sehwag, selectors went for experience.

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ananthd
01/09/2009 04:25

JJ, I was talking about Ranji ODIs(The Vijay Hazare Trophy).....

Here are the 08-09 & 07-08 K'taka squads.....

Rahul played a couple of Deodhar games as Test warmups(didn't do much).....

Other than these I don't he's had any List-A cricket for nearly 2 years....

I have no issues for a farewell tourney for Dravid.....

But this is still a short-sighted move and Kohli & Nayar should have been preferred ahead of him and Kohli certainly deserved it over Dravid....

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Gabbar
02/09/2009 16:59

I agree anandth -Dravid should not have been selected

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Tendulkar is the greatest cricketer of all time

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Spirit of Cricket
11/09/2009 22:40

Dravid contributes a painfully slow 14(65) in the first ODI against NZ in the tri-series! India win despite him.

Will this guy ever learn that ODI means quick runs? His strike rate of 20 would be considered too slow even for a Test.

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Birbal
11/09/2009 22:55

Actually his strike rate was 31 or so...but still pathetically slow...and it was not like there was a huge wobble or he the wicket was especially treacherous...

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thirdman
12/09/2009 02:07

LOL. LOL LL LOL LOL LOL LOL.

Dravid is making a fool of himself.

Utterly inept guy - makes every attack look deadly.

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