Rahul Dravid

[Matt79]

Thought he had a much better series than Ganguly actually.

 

[Perm]

Thought he had a much better series than Ganguly actually.

No doubt about that in my mind, even though I thought Ganguly batted well and should have done more. Looked really good at times, and terrible at others.

 

[Richard]

Thought he had a much better series than Ganguly actually.

In the end yeah, sadly Ganguly, who looked a million dollars in the First and Second Test, dropped-off completely. 'Twas a real shame.

 

[Cevno]

I think dravid should now retire from atleast ODI cricket certainly not test cricket.
His status as a ODI batsmen has not been as good as a test batsmen and now with there being options in the middle order his comeback seems unlikely as there are many other middle order batsmen waiting to make the breakthrough in ODI cricket or waiting to make their spots permanent.
As fo test cricket he will come back to form for a last flourish ,i have no doubts about it.

 

[pasag]

On dropping Dravid

Before anyone starts shouting me down, I'm not convinced either way but what should be done here? There comes a time when a player just can't be carried anymore and it's not in a team's best interest to keep him despite being such a valuable player for so many years.

Dravid is an all time great batsman but should he be dropped and if not how many more low scores would you tolerate?

I guess the only important question is; can he score runs for India in the next couple of years and are you confident he will be one of the six best batsman in the country over that time?

Dunno.

 

[Sanz]

He should be dropped and Kumble should be removed as captain too. I was not happy with hiss captaincy in Australia and here again he is just clueless.

 

[duffer]

Before anyone starts shouting me down, I'm not convinced either way but what should be done here? There comes a time when a player just can't be carried anymore and it's not in a team's best interest to keep him despite being such a valuable player for so many years.

Dravid is an all time great batsman but should he be dropped and if not how many more low scores would you tolerate?

I guess the only important question is; can he score runs for India in the next couple of years and are you confident he will be one of the six best batsman in the country over that time?

Dunno.

Problem is I've got more faith in Dravid regaining some semblance of form than I do in any of the younger crew in being able to make the step up and be consistently good Test batsmen.

They should've tried Badrinath when he was going through that incredible run of form, but as it stands now Sharma, Yuvraj and Kaif don't convince me in the slightest.

 

[Richard]

Badrinath >>>>>>>> Kaif, surely?

 

[duffer]

Yes, but the selectors don't seem to believe in Badrinath. He can't get into a side no matter how heavily he scores it seems.

 

[ret]

I wouldn't consider UV and Kaif in the scheme of things .... Badri, Rohit and possibly Raina look like promising options though

as we can see from the current series that someone like Gambhir appears more likely to get a good score than someone like a Dravid or a Ganguly so it might not be a bad idea to draft some youngsters in

a line up like the one below might not be a bad idea!!!

- Sehwag
- Gambhir
- Rohit
- Tendulkar
- Laxman / Badrinath
- Dhoni [c]
- Pathan [an all-rounder to lend some depth to both the batting and the bowling]
- Kumble
- Mishra / Chawla
- Zaheer / Munaf
- Ishant

 

[silentstriker]

He has played eight matches since the beginning of 2008 and averages 35 with a century. Considering his past, I would give him the rest of this series, and the entire next series before dropping him.

 

[Dissector]

My impression was his form was worse than this. 35 seems borderline OK particularly given his past and the lack of plausible replacements. I would certainly give him till the end of this series and then make a decision. I would definitely give Laxman the 3 spot though; who knows a lower position might reduce the pressure and allow Dravid to regain form.

 

[Manee]

He has played eight matches since the beginning of 2008 and averages 35 with a century. Considering his past, I would give him the rest of this series, and the entire next series before dropping him.

AWTA, but would look to bat him at six for this and the next series, injuries pending. I believe that it is critical to groom Laxman in the number 3 position while Dravid is not in great form.

 

[Richard]

My impression was his form was worse than this.

It often happens when a player who you're used to averaging 60 or 70 suddenly has a patch where he "only" averages 35 or whatever.

 

[Jono]

Bat VVS at 3. Would give Rahul something to think about, and we all know VVS loves batting first drop. Nothing to lose really.

 

[weldone]

He should be played for another 5 tests at least, though a case can be made for playing Laxman at 3 and dropping Dravid down the order for the time being...Also, in the long run we can think of playing 6 batsmen including Dhoni and bringing in one alrounder (Irfan) to strengthen the line-up...But that can be done only if one between Dravid and Ganguly can be dropped after 5 or more tests (not now, certainly) if their slumps continue...

 

[Bijay]

I think Dravid is the all time great bats man .We should not condemn him after three or four failure innings.No doubt he is wall of India.But now he is running through the bad form .Still the wall is strong .

 

[Uppercut]

I personally would drop him. If he bats at 6 he's so ridiculously defensive and one-paced that he'd probably get stranded on about 10. Give him until the end of this series to improve, because dropping someone mid-series is poor practice. As has been said many times over the past few days, a test match is no place to try to regain your form.

 

[unccricket]

dravid should be demoted to #6 at the very least and seriously be considered for being dropped. his form over the past 18 months has been scratchy to say the least. i think the captaincy broke him, like it did ganguly.

 

[BoyBrumby]

He has played eight matches since the beginning of 2008 and averages 35 with a century. Considering his past, I would give him the rest of this series, and the entire next series before dropping him.

Have to admit that I don't know enough about the other options available to make any drop/not drop calls, but Dravid's form stacks up pretty well against Vaughan's, who now averages less than 25 from 9 games in the calendar year.