Rahul Dravid

[honestbharani]

It is not about averages alone though.. He has looked rather clueless out there and it seems he is putting a lot of pressure on himself too. And with each and every failure, that pressure is only increasing. He needs a break. Drop him if he doesn't get a good score by the end of the series, let him go back to Ranji and spend time with his family, let him get into a good frame of mind first and then when/if he is doing well, we can draft him back in.


ATM, we are carrying him and given the state of our team, it is not something we can actually afford.



Absolute tragedy that when Sachin was in bad nick, almost everyone else (Sehwag, Dravid, Laxman, even Ganguly) were in such ridiculously good form that we never even had to consider dropping him. But now that Dravid is having his bad run, it is unfortunately coinciding when the others are also not doing as well as they did in that golden period. I guess that is just how life is, tbh...

 

[vic_orthdox]

It is not about averages alone though.. He has looked rather clueless out there and it seems he is putting a lot of pressure on himself too.

So you're going to drop a guy in the middle of a "form slump", which is identified more about how he looks than his actual numbers? If he's going to continue to average 35, in a lull, then you've got to give him time to recover.

 

[tooextracool]

So you're going to drop a guy in the middle of a "form slump", which is identified more about how he looks than his actual numbers? If he's going to continue to average 35, in a lull, then you've got to give him time to recover.

Lets be honest here. Dravid has been poor since the series against the WI 2 years ago. Not just by his own standards, but by anyones standards. His average is irrelevant, having watched most of his innings hes played poorly whenever India have really needed him to score runs and Im saying this as arguably the biggest Dravid fan on the forum, if he were to be dropped now, I would not be very disappointed. Obviously, Id only drop him if there was a competent batsman to replace him, but there is a irrefutable case to drop him ATM.

 

[irfan]

Dravid is a quality batsman; like many others have expressed, I'd shift him to 6 and move Laxman up to 3 as he always gets tied down by the new ball bowlers and is unable to break the shackles if his innings progresses. If he is at 6, he has a chance to play himself in with an older ball and he is much better at shepherding the tail than Laxman will ever be.

If you have to drop Dravid, then it has to be for Badrinath as he is a like-for-like replacement in terms of technique and consistency, but unfortunately, the Indian selectors will never do that.

 

[Mr Mxyzptlk]

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.

Regardless of how poor he is? The man is 35, after all. One of my favourite players, but he looks to be past it. And given his age and all he's accomplished, it's understandable.

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.

Those stats are a bit flattered by a couple of innings though. In between his 93 against Australia and his 111 against South Africa, and since the latter, he's done very little.

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.

Only passed 20 twice in his last 9 completed innings. It's not just relatively poor form. It's actually very poor form.

 

[Uppercut]

There's a case for dropping him, and a case for keeping him in the team, but i find it hard to believe some are suggesting batting him at 6. VVS has settled very well into that role, he's faaaar too defensive and one-paced to bat with the tail, he'll be batting with Dhoni most of the time- who likes to run quick singles, Dravid doesn't. What exactly makes anyone think he'll perform better at 6 having batted higher up the order all his career?

 

[Top_Cat]

I'd back him. Mark Taylor went for longer without a ton at all and looked even more out-of-touch than Dravid and when he got his mojo back, celebrated with a triple ton and some top-class knocks against South Africa. I'd only re-visit that if he fails for the rest of the current series and the next.

 

[sanga1337]

There's a case for dropping him, and a case for keeping him in the team, but i find it hard to believe some are suggesting batting him at 6. VVS has settled very well into that role, he's faaaar too defensive and one-paced to bat with the tail, he'll be batting with Dhoni most of the time- who likes to run quick singles, Dravid doesn't. What exactly makes anyone think he'll perform better at 6 having batted higher up the order all his career?

Possibly because there's not as much pressure batting at 6 than at 3?

 

[SJS]

Dropping a player for a match or two is not the end of the world anywhere in the world except in the sub-continent and this results in players developing this massive 'fear of failure' which just keeps making things worse.

We seem to just forget a player once he is dropped and , unless he is Saurav Ganguly and a whole community will take to rioting on the streets, or the media will use him as a weapon in their self-proclaimed war against the 'tyranny' of a 'many-middle-fingered' foreign coach, no one will bat an eye lid.

The players are scared of being dropped because getting back into the side is so damned difficult. That is why it is sometimes a stroke of good luck to have an injury which gives a rest to the body as well as to bad form as has happened in Sachin's case.

Maybe Rahul should take it upon himself to take a forced sabbatical. Though he may have left it till too late I suspect.

 

[alternative]

Give him this and another full series and if he still is in the form slump, that's when he needs to get dropped. Till then i don't think he should get dropped. Meanwhile i think BCCI will jump the gun and get rid of him after this series. So i am hoping that Dravid can give a decent performance in the second innings itself.

 

[SJS]

Give him this and another full series and if he still is in the form slump, that's when he needs to get dropped. Till then i don't think he should get dropped. Meanwhile i think BCCI will jump the gun and get rid of him after this series. So i am hoping that Dravid can give a decent performance in the second innings itself.

I would love him to get a double hundred. I am convinced he has no problem except those in his head. He showed that when he relinquished the captaincy though on top. It has just kept getting worse since then.

It affected his demeanour and then his batting and now it has shattered his confidence.

Thats why he needs a rest.

He needs to go to the first class games score big doubles and even triples as he can and come back stronger. BCCO should have a plan for him. He is too priceless (and still in the prime of his batting career) to be wasted.

 

[Jakester1288]

I am eager to see how he bats today. He will more than likely get a bat, because India need 3 wickets, then Sri Lanka need one, and he's in. I would like to see him score big today, and score a century and find some form.

 

[SJS]

I dont know why his fans have a problem with his batting at number six. It just might do the trick for him. It did in the past, remember.

Once he gets runs, even batting with the tail, he will always be back at number three - no one can stop that except Rahul himself.

 

[Jakester1288]

I dont know why his fans have a problem with his batting at number six. It just might do the trick for him. It did in the past, remember.

Once he gets runs, even batting with the tail, he will always be back at number three - no one can stop that except Rahul himself.

I agree completely. He is such a good batsmen, and today or tomorrow he will be fighting for his position at number 3. If he makes a solid 40+, he has guaranteed his spot for another game. however if I was an Indian selector, I would be giving Laxman the number 3 spot, where he just thrives and scores runs, and slide Dravid down to 6. Then, when he regains form, slide him back up to three again.

 

[SJS]

I agree completely. He is such a good batsmen, and today or tomorrow he will be fighting for his position at number 3. If he makes a solid 40+, he has guaranteed his spot for another game. however if I was an Indian selector, I would be giving Laxman the number 3 spot, where he just thrives and scores runs, and slide Dravid down to 6. Then, when he regains form, slide him back up to three again.

Completely in agreement.

 

[BoyBrumby]

I'd back him. Mark Taylor went for longer without a ton at all and looked even more out-of-touch than Dravid and when he got his mojo back, celebrated with a triple ton and some top-class knocks against South Africa. I'd only re-visit that if he fails for the rest of the current series and the next.

Broke his run (typically for an Australian captain, I suppose) in the first test of the 1997 Ashes if memory serves.

 

[Richard]

I've never really been sure about that. Taylor made a century in the Edgbaston Test in 1997 to stave the wolves from the door, but made 1, 2, 1 and 0 in his next 4 innings. It was only in the Trent Bridge Test (making 76 and 45) that he finally begun to banish the wretched form of 1996/97.

And sure enough in the 17 games from Trent Bridge onwards he averaged 58. His final 2 Tests were absolutely wretched (7, 19, 2, 2) as his first 2 had been poor (25, 3, 3, 36) but I think we can forgive that for a player whose 100 Tests in the middle were so mostly superlative.

 

[haroon510]

drop him once in for all ..

 

[Arjun]

We can't say. It's not an ordinary player hanging on due to lack of options. It's someone who was once a great player, not too long ago. There is a very competent option in the form of Badrinath, but the shoes of Rahul Dravid will be too big to fill for many.

 

[weldone]

We can't say. It's not an ordinary player hanging on due to lack of options. It's someone who was once a great player, not too long ago. There is a very competent option in the form of Badrinath, but the shoes of Rahul Dravid will be too big to fill for many.

perfectly put...