Dravid did an exceptional job under the circumstances. He was struggling for form, forced to open the innings and also thanks to the ludricrous scheduling by the BCCI bigwigs, there was only 1 tour match and this was also washed out due to bad weather.
Dravid deserves to be aplauded for the effort he put in. However, scoring a few more runs would not be such a bad idea. This would also help clear the cobwebs in Dravid's mind.
Guys, we need to support Dravid so that he gets back in form, because we all know what an excellent batsman he is and how he can help India win test matches.
RE:Dravid's stonewalling
by Suman Bhat on Dec 28, 2007 02:43 PM Permalink
Opening against fast and accurate bowling on hard bouncy pitches in aus conditions will be a tough task for any batsman As a professional team player dravid he accepted challenge knowing that chief selector has already an against him and he was thrown out odi after five bad innings batting in diff positions A failure of gamble for kumble as dravid failed as opener now ppl are already screaming against dravid. . He has never been selfish towards his position and game Whenever team has problem dravid made scapegoat and desciminating in batting order for dravid? other Indian batsman is ready to open, buz they all are under tremendous pressure even playing in their regular slot,
make ganguly and tendulkar open batting in test against aussie and face the lee johnso and s cleakr sts and also make them bat in five diff positions in five odis then see the differnce in scoring strikerate. ..why everytime dravid should made scapegoat and none of player is coming forward to open innings to accommodate yuvraj. Ganguly said he missed many 100s bcuz of batting up in order why he did not come forward to opening??why great tendulkar did not secirfice his position while he wanted to open in odis. tmaster blaster did not blast or tiger did not roar..where was superstars when team require their service blabbering so much in front of media If he fails he will be out of test team also He is well aware of chief selector has an agenda against him.( Already out of odi team after jus
RE:Dravid's stonewalling
by Vikas Ural on Dec 28, 2007 05:14 PM Permalink
Forget what people says Mr. Suman. Dravid is the wall of Indian cricket. The best batsman of the Indian team. I always believed is that the only thing is he lack is a good media manager. He always did lacked a good PR manager unlike Ganguly and Sachin whose performances are hyped much higher than you can imagine. Thats why he is becoming a scapegoat, a easy target. Its all the hype done and the image created by the media that we get such unacceptable articles. Same is the case with Kumble.
I think every player in the Indian team should PRACTICE to stand at the crease like Dravid, not for two hours, but atleast 4 hours, so that they can come out with a test DRAW against the Australians. If the ball hits their bat, they should not run, its too risky getting run out. Lets finish the 5-day game altogether.
Hes sure a WALL the ball does go past him.. It neither goes in front of him. Once it hits his bat it stay there next to him...... So how can he score runs...... Hes rightly names as WALL.
RE:The WALL
by Suman Bhat on Dec 28, 2007 03:16 PM Permalink
Dravid is still best...
Dravid is hig Mat I nns NO Runs HS Ave BF SR 100 50 115 197 24 9683 270 55.97 22832 42.40 24 49 hest contributor to the team ind victory as test batsman for india.more than tendulkar and gavaskar dravids average is 74.92 when india wins.Dravid's average is 35.09 in his last ten innings Dravid has highest catchholder for ind in test (in odi too) Dravid has highest batting average in test format than any other batsman dravid is only batsman who batted from No1 to No7 position in team for both forms of game Dravid is only ind player who won 3 icc awards dravid only ind player selected for 3 yrs icc test team 2 yrs icc odi team. dravid is only player who performed consistantly from last 6-7 yrs for the team. Pls check the stat before u call dravid is useless today even master blaster did not blast or tiger did not roar Where was superstars when team required their service?? opening in test against aussies on hard and bouncy pitch is tough task for any batsman even jaffer had failed.why did not superstar tendulkar and ganguly were not coming and opening to accomodate yuvraj?? Dravid sacrificed his usual spot #3 to accommodate Yuvraj?? ganguly and tendulkar went throgh more worst bad time and form than dravid and survived in team and got more chances. nobody screamed against both players ? Make tendulkar and ganguly open innings and face the new ball in test and make them bat in fiv
Indian team need to make adjustment in the opening slot if they r still hoping to win the match and most important they have to KEEP THEIR HOPES ALIVE!!
How can 66 balls 5 runs be worse than a first ball duck. Agree, its not a good innings by a long distance but labelling it as 4th worst is stretching things too far. Longest wait to open account is not a criteria to judge batting performance.
RE:how can it be 4th worst
by ganesh v on Dec 28, 2007 09:46 AM Permalink
i perfectly agree, morethan the 66 balls it was nearly 2 hours he stayed which is important, otherwise India would have been all out for lessthan 100.
RE:how can it be 4th worst
by Janardhana on Dec 28, 2007 08:07 AM Permalink
I fully agree. In reality dravid did a decent job, by seeing off new ball and allowing stroke players to play their game although I agree it would have been good if he himself got some decent runs. But remember he is out of form and he is not an opener. On the contrary What did regular opener jaffer did. Similarly if some body bats like dravid did, in test it can also affect bowlers too. Not getting wicket can frustrate them also. Moreover, clearly after dravid, Sachin and sourav played a decent partnership and they have gained back momentum with 130 for 3 down, from which 300 plus was possibility. What happened then, why India lost sudden 3 wickets, what did Yuvaraj and Dhoni do. In fact this hurt more than anybody else. The 3 quick wickets when momentum was slowly turning to Indian side hurt India more than anybody else. Even if Yuvaraj and Dhoni stayed at crease like dravid did, we would have some runs and they were playing old ball which was far more easier than playing newball, they were in their familiar batting positions. But unfortunately, people and media doesnot talk about this for they are biased and having a single point agenda to finish off Dravid.
Much has been written about Dravid's slow batting. As far as I see there could be only 2 reasons why this happened.
a. Dravid was struggling for form b. Dravid was just seeing off the new ball
In both cases, Dravid is justified. If Dravid was struggling for form, it is quite possible because India were playing Australia in a Test Match with no match practice in Australia. The Test matches vs Pakistan were played on slow/low wickets and can hardly be termed as "preparing" for the Australian tour. Whoever made these pitches should be pulled up first. And also, Dravid was playing the role of a opener that he was not quite accustomed to. It could be just that the team strategy failed here.
b. While statistically we may prove that it was the fourth slowest starts, there are many other instances that come to my mind where players have started off slowly, but have gone on to make a big score. Very recently Phil Jacques took some 30 balls to open the account, but went to score big against one of the modest pace attacks in the world - which is Sri Lanka! May be... just may be Rahul prevented the likes of Saurav Ganguly from facing Brett Lee and saved further embarrassment.
The overall batting failed and it is wrong to find one scape goat in Rahul Dravid. Lets face it, it was a mental game.., a war of attrition and the team that held their nerve won the battle for the day. The Test match is not yet over, and lets not be too quick in composing an obituary.
RE:Re: Stonewalling at its best!
by Siddhartha M on Dec 28, 2007 12:58 AM Permalink
agreed that ur trying to defend dravid, why the hell ur pulling in ganguly...there is laxman, sachin also before him...and sri-lanka they atleast having one world-class pace bowler....VAAS..just wait and see GANGULY will be the success of this tour to AUSTRALIA....
RE:Re: Stonewalling at its best!
by SAMRAT ROYCHOWDHURY on Dec 28, 2007 01:55 AM Permalink
Dear Sudhakar, You have given some appalling reasons about Dravid's slow batting. Probably, just like Dravid you are struggling for 'common sense' or trying to ward of the brickbats being showered on Dravid. And about Dravid preventing the likes of Sourav Ganguly facing Brett Lee......just maybe he's not yet upto the standard to do so! Just to keep you informed, in this era of science, everything is evidence based. Evidence of course is based in statistics. I certainly wished that no Indian should feature in the table presented by Rajneesh Gupta, but someone does! It's sad, but that's life! Accept it or not, it is Rahul Dravid! Of course, it is true that the match is far from over, but, (at least) for that day Sourav was mentally stronger than Dravid and therefore faced Brett Lee far better. Next time onwards, when you make a posting in this forum try to 'see' a bit more and try to be less nervy / shaky (than Dravid!). Best wishes, SRC
