Blogs Rahul Dravid: Where Does He Go From Here?
March 29th, 2008 by prashantI am sure most of you would agree that Dravid probably is the most technically correct batsman India has produced in recent times (I am not considering Gavaskar & earlier). What has happened to him? Ever since touring West Indies in 2006 and especially during India’s tour of England under his captaincy and Australia under Kumble, Dravid is getting more and more into his defensive shell and at times potentially messing up team goals. His knock of 12 in 98 balls in the 3rd Test against England when India was on the top is an impossible thing to understand or explain. One can disagree with his decision of not enforcing the follow-on but can understand it, but playing that slowly (12 from 98 balls is ultra-slow by any standards) at such a strong position is not only impossible to agree with but impossible to understand.
That was not an isolated incident. His ultra-defensive approach and lack of interest in doing any sort of effort to make runs or at least rotate the strike, is fast becoming annoying to watch. Even in the current test against SA, when Sehwag was batting with such an attacking way, Dravid “did” all he could to take the momentum away from India and presented it to SA.
Now that he has 2 more landmarks under his belt, one for exceeding 10,000 runs in Tests and second by scoring 25 Test Centuries, where will he go from here?
Though I might be coming across as someone who dislikes Dravid, I really hope that this great Indian batsman does not finish his extremely successful test career at such a low note.
March 29th, 2008 at 11:30 pm
Rahul still has at least three years of test cricket left in him. He is suffering from a mental block, like all other greats of the game before. If you remember, in the SA series, Sachin played a painfully slow knock when our team was almost on the verge of pinning the opposition in the mat. The way he ‘tackled’ Paul Harris was something I’d never seen from any other good batsman, let alone a great batsman like Sachin. But now, he’s gotten out of the shell and he’s playing his natural game. Similarly, Rahul needs to get out of the shell that he is in. Because, in my opinion, Rahul is someone our team just can’t do without - especially in test cricket.
March 29th, 2008 at 11:45 pm
I hope you are right Kris. I would also love to see Dravid come out this mental block and be good as he used to be.