Rahul Dravid - What would you do? Is he still one of India's 6 best batsman?

[sachin200]

Dravid has always been in form. Infact he makes runs in IPL/CL T20 without much fuss. He is making runs is FC too. Dravid will score runs against good (say NZ, SL WI, ) attacks without much fuss but he is struggling against FAST bowlers (SA, AUS, PAK) on batting pitches and also struggling against good attacks (NZ, SL, WI ) on helpful pitches. Even if he bats well against FAST bowlers (on his days with some luck) he will make 30s/40s. That is not good enough. He will struggle big time in SA (centurion, durban esp.). The sole reason for that he is 37. He struggles with his foot work.

Few Examples of his struggles and its patterns

1. in ENG 2007 (swing against good bowlers, did not get even one 100)
2. in AUS 2008 (Fast bowlers, scored 2 fifties, with lot of dropped catches/ catches of no balls)
2. in SA 2006 (fast bowlers/ No fifties)
4. in SL 2010 (Malinga + randiv + mendis)
5. did well against SL 2009 (did not have any FAST bowler + flat pitch)
6. did well against NZ 2009 (No fast bowler (140k+) + Flat pitches)
7. did well against BAN ( No Fast bowler + flat pitch)
8. v AUS 2010 (struggled against FAST bowlers)
9. v PAF 2007 (struggled against FAST bowlers)
10. SL 2008 (struggled against mendis + murali)
11. v AUS 2008 (struggled against FAST bowlers)

 

[Daemon]

Unless you think Vijay/Pujara or whomever would be better against South Africa, you are saying that we should sacrifice the South African series to give Vijay/Pujara experience.

Well there are batsmen out there who definitely deserve the opportunity. They are all very capable batsmen, and may do well in South Africa, I wouldn't call playing any of them in place of Dravid a 'sacrifice'.

I want to see Dravid do well in South Africa and play as long as possible but can you imagine what might happen to India if within the span of a year, our middle order consists of new players with little or no international experience?

If that happens and any one of the new players fails, we'll need a replacement. Who will that replacement be? Another newbie with little experience. Coupled with our weak bowling attack, we'll hardly be a world beating side.

Of course all this is hypothetical and dravid may well play till hes 42 with sachin and laxman retiring before him.

 

[Shri]

If Dravid does well in SA, its good for us as far the series is concerned. I bet he would retire or be dropped from the side if he doesn't do well and it is again a long term success for the side. Either way, we will be seeing him retire soon, 38 is pushing it.

 

[Jono]

Dravid... WAG!

 

[Flem274*]

Drop Raina. There is no way he should be in the test team atm.

 

[deeps]

a) Even if Dravid does return to form, how much more is he going to offer? another year? at best. Is it worth persisting through months of mediocrity to eventually get another year?

2-3 years. My whole argument is that older players are 'retired' far too quickly, as soon as they lose form. They aren't given the same chance an older 20 something year old player would be given. Physically, Dravid is in great shape. He can bat long innings, has immense concentration and is seldom injured. There is nothing to suggest he cannot continue his stellar career.

b) Its all fine and good to allow Dravid to continue if the quality of back up players weren't any good. But when you have prodigies lying in wait, it seems illogical to keep someone with not much of a future in the side.

You are talking about a subcontinental cricket team. There will ALWAYS be so called prodigies in the making. Yet how many of these 'prodigies' actually come good? Dravid is a proven match winner with an amazing track record. He also brings something totally different to the table, that no other current Indian squad member has (with the exception of Tendulkar). Determination. The rest of the team are all aggressive flashy players. You need players that can grind out a result in a difficult situation. The problem with the Australian batting line up now? Same thing. No Steve Waugh to dig them out of difficult situations. Every team needs one or two of these players.

c) Now is the best time to groom some of your younger players. While Sachin, Sehwag and Laxman are still playing at their top level. Throwing them into the deep end when all these 3(or 2/3) retire is a recipe for disaster.

I agree. But this is already happening. There does not need to be a concerted effort to do so. Gambhir, Pujara, Muraly Vijay, Dinesh Kartik, Suresh Raina and many more have got games under their belt and will continue to do so. They are gaining valuable experience, and their time will come.

d) Some of the younger players may miss out on the primes of their careers. Someone like Badrinath never got a shot at the international level, and given his age he probably wont get a shot either.

Players will always miss out. You can't accomodate for everyone. Stuart Macgill could have had an excellent career as a spin bowler, but he missed out due to Shane Warne. Really though, over the years, there has been enough injuries etc for Badrinath to have come in and filled in a few gaps and got 10-20 tests and countless more ODI's under his belt. The fact he has only played two, means the selectors always chose someone else ahead of him anyway.

 

[deeps]

Drop Raina. There is no way he should be in the test team atm.

This. He is not performing at all. He needs to go back to the domestic circuit and start making runs before he is brought back into the side. Murali Vijay looks like a man for the future, and should be given an extended run in the side now.

 

[Debris]

How well will India cope if Tendulkar, Dravid and Laxman all retire together? And Sehwag is getting on a bit as well. come to think of it.

 

[Evermind]

Would be pretty crazy to drop Tendulkar, Dravid, Sehwag or Laxman at any point. They have proven to be match-winners for long periods of their careers. You don't drop people like that just because they're averaging in their low-40s for a year or two. It's suicide for the team.

 

[Evermind]

How well will India cope if Tendulkar, Dravid and Laxman all retire together? And Sehwag is getting on a bit as well. come to think of it.

They're gonna end up where Australia are at the moment: 4th or 5th in the rankings, and finding it pretty hard to win away games.

 

[Blaze 18]

Would be pretty crazy to drop Tendulkar, Dravid, Sehwag or Laxman at any point. They have proven to be match-winners for long periods of their careers. You don't drop people like that just because they're averaging in their low-40s for a year or two. It's suicide for the team.

They're gonna end up where Australia are at the moment: 4th or 5th in the rankings, and finding it pretty hard to win away games.

Bingo.

 

[Checkmate]

Can't believe how much Raina's batting has fallen away. Hard to see him getting runs in SA but it'll be interesting to see whether he will be persisted with.

 

[Flem274*]

I don't rate Raina at all tbh. He'll be okay on slow subcontinental pitches as long as no one gets it above his knees, but crap everywhere else.

Taking Raina to SA would be like taking Watling to India...

Pick Pujara!

 

[ankitj]

I don't rate Raina at all tbh. He'll be okay on slow subcontinental pitches as long as no one gets it above his knees, but crap everywhere else.

Taking Raina to SA would be like taking Watling to India...

Pick Pujara!

Agree fully. I think Pujara should have been given a game in this series too.

 

[Blocky]

To be honest, dropping Dravid ranks as one of the most stupid decisions out there.

You don't drop your bread and butter player, even if he's not quite the guy he used to be. Who do you want batting for you at 10/3? Rahul Dravid or any other indian batsman?

He's bankable, he still has the best technique in the team and is still more likely to keep out top class bowling than anyone else.

 

[Checkmate]

To be honest, dropping Dravid ranks as one of the most stupid decisions out there.

You don't drop your bread and butter player, even if he's not quite the guy he used to be. Who do you want batting for you at 10/3? Rahul Dravid or any other indian batsman?

He's bankable, he still has the best technique in the team and is still more likely to keep out top class bowling than anyone else.

He's done very well this series and should keep his place for quite a while, but it doesn't mean that criticism against him based on his form over the past couple of years wasn't justified.

 

[Jono]

Yeah even I'm coming around to dropping Raina for Pujara. Don't think the selectors will do it though.

Raina is a terrific ODI player, and no doubt he will smash some runs against NZ in the ODIs and the selectors will justify him going to SA on the back of that.

 

[TumTum]

At least give Raina a chance to fail before asking him to be dropped and to be replaced by the devil.

 

[vcs]

I don't rate Raina at all tbh. He'll be okay on slow subcontinental pitches as long as no one gets it above his knees, but crap everywhere else.

Taking Raina to SA would be like taking Watling to India...

Pick Pujara!

Agree fully. I think Pujara should have been given a game in this series too.

Raina played the short ball well in his debut innings (which was an important one for India) where both Malinga and Fernando peppered him IIRC. Has looked very dodgy recently, though.

 

[HeathDavisSpeed]

At least give Raina a chance to fail before asking him to be dropped and to be replaced by the devil.

The devil? Do you think they're replacing him with Williamson or something?