Dravid is great (I do not have to repeat the statitics again). He is expected to bat at number one, take off the shine of the ball, score more runs and if need be he will also be expected to keep wickets. Just because he does all of this in a selfless manner? Come on, let's not be hipocrites. We know more than that.
Dravid has won more test matches for india than sachin tendulkar. He has saved india from defeat on many occassions. Is the only indian batsman other than tendulkar to score more than 20000 runs in both tests and one-dayers. But Dravid today resembled more like one yesteryears batsman named Ravi shastri. He was a master stonewaller.
RE:Dravid's stonewalling
by Suman Bhat on Dec 27, 2007 10:09 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
RE:Dravid's stonewalling
by CricFan01 on Dec 28, 2007 01:16 AM Permalink
stop your broken record about past records. Dravid has opened before and plays number 3 consistently so dont blame his performance on being sent as opener. He also played like this in England when he was playing at #3.
When in doubt murder Dravid. We Indians don't deserve such selfless players. Why the hell does Dravid agree to open the innings? We have more accomplished openers, don't we? Tendulkar and Ganguly, who fight to open in one dayers bcoz it suits them. But when it comes to standing in firing line we thrust our best batsman, yes BEST, to open against Aussies in Australia. Bcoz he will not complain, everyone else will refuse including great Tendulkar, but Dravid being the fool he is, thinks there is no greater good than playing for India. I also read in these responses that if Dravid does not open he is out of team. Sehwag is better than Dravid etc. etc. What a load of crap. This is the knowledge and intelligence of average cricket fan in India.
Dravid. Please retire. This country never deserved you. I remember one last word said by you. "It%u2019s a great honour to play for your country. I don't believe I get paid to do so."
Yes the Hero of most of our overseas wins(sorry Tendulkar and Ganguly fans, but I am right)should go now, before being dropped for agreeing to sacrifice himself for team cause.
RE:Dravid - The end of the INDIAN
by Rajee on Dec 27, 2007 08:02 PM Permalink
i am myself a dravid fan, but i agree to what has been written in the above article. remember in that test against england, dravid was not opening but still he played that way. he must learn to rotate strike. a player with lots of experience should not have the need to be told this..
RE:Dravid - The end of the INDIAN
by Amit C on Dec 27, 2007 07:56 PM Permalink
To answer your question, at the current time, Dravid is the out-of-form batsman and so has to be more flexible to his batting position... otherwise he can be dropped as well..
RE:Dravid - The end of the INDIAN
by Shinu Varghese on Dec 27, 2007 08:00 PM Permalink
Dropped for Yuvraj. What did he score batting at 6? Oh yea, I remember "ZERO". Dropped for Sehwag. YES. After all he is the specilist. Let him open and keep the player who scored more runs today.
RE:Dravid - The end of the INDIAN
by CricFan01 on Dec 28, 2007 01:11 AM Permalink
Dravid is a great and selfless player who performed exceptionally well in the last decade or so. I am a great fan of Dravid too but the topic is not about Dravid's past performance nor about his ability as a batsmen. It is the way he played today and we all know he is capable of doing much better. Granted he did not have to play strokes but what stopped him from taking singles and rotating the strike. So many singles were missed out. This is not the first time Dravid batted like this. He even did in England when India needed quick runs to enforce the declaration and he was playing as if we were saving the game. Sometimes he tends to get very negative and that is what we are talking about. Dravid has played at number 3 for a long time and he also opened few times earlier scoring 2 centuries, so it is logical that he asked to open to which he agreed. If someone like SS Das or Akash Chopra had played like that, we would not even be talking about it because they have limitations but Dravid has the capability to atleast rotate the strike which he failed to do.
Dravid has been no 3 till now, but it is as good as being an opener since usually India has been losing its first wicket very quickly sometimes in the first over itself. So why is everyone cribbing that it is a new role for him.
Shifting roles is not easy, and that too when you are about to enter the sunset of your career.
When Dravid was shifted to the openers slot, the primary object is to see the shine off the new ball and provide striking opportunities to hte later middle order batsmen. With Jaffer going early, if he too chooses to score off runs and in the process gets out and expose the middle order with the newball still with shine on it, he was not doing what was expected of him.
He might have consumed 66 balls; but he took the shine off the ball in those 66 balls he faced and gave the next batsmen to follow and good ball to strike.
So Dravid would not have scored runs; take 50% of credit for it. But he did as an opener consumed 11 overs on himself alone. You ought to give credit to him for that!
Remember it is never easy to shift roles and too against a team like Australia and again IN AUSTRALIA!
RE:DRAVID DID 50% OF HIS JOB
by CricFan01 on Dec 28, 2007 01:14 AM Permalink
After playing 66 balls for 5 runs, if he had scored a 50 then we would not complain but he got out after that. Moreover he was lucky, could have got out on 2 occasions, one a dropped catch by Jacques and other caught off no-ball.
Many people are commenting that Dravid was sent as opener and hence he failed. I do not think this arguement is valid for the performance he gave today. This is a bad performance by any standard. Agreed he is specialized for number 3. But this should not be an excuse for such bad performance. There were many batsmen tried as opener.... but none of them gave this bad performance. Looks like he played this way purposely so he will not be sent to open again.... He needs rest now
I think Rajaneesh Gupta is a Ganguly Fan. All this started (Hating Dravid) when ganguly leftout of the team and dravid became a captain. I love ganguly as he scored 10000 runs in Oneday Cricket Dravid,Tendulkar, Jayasurya, Lara did the same feet. Please do understand he is not having won a test for us with his batting nor tendulkar in overseas. Please do understand 2004 Australia test win by dravid by his batting, West Indies test,Last but 1 series in England, Newzealand, Laxman & Dravid in Calcutta and it will go on.
Who are having the guts to OPEN the INNINGS?
Your/My Tendulkar, Your Dada (Not in Tests), Your Yuvi (I don't like him either in one dayers, Your/My Laxman, Your/My Dhoni
When u r critisizing somebody please take logics. Dravid is a fool, because he agreed to open the innings and he is the BRAVE HEART.
K my logic is dravid played 66 delivaries, that is the reason DADA, TENDULKAR not played new ball so they survived. Who is going to question?
Please STOP HATING GANGULY / DRAVID / TENDULKAR. All are INDIANS. This is enough and REDIFF PLEASE STOP SUCH TYPE OF CONTROVERCIES. U R CREATING DIFFERENCES IN INDIANS. REDIFF IS DESH DROHI.
Yours Sincerely, A Hopefully True Indian, Malladi.
Better, do some good job rediff. "Most of such performances came from lower order batsmen who had no or very little batting abilities or were batting under tremendous pressure". Here no other Indian batsman is ready to open, cos they all are under tremendous pressure even playing in their regular slot, but not Dravid. Dravid is the savior not only for Indian cricket and to other Indian batsmen too.
RE:Idiotic Stats
by senthil JEGADEESAN on Dec 27, 2007 07:21 PM Permalink
It was a highly idiotic decision to ask Drav id to open. He is a natural No 3 batsman. Also he is not n the best form of his life. Yuvraj Singh was hyped a lot. He is a batsman who can play in flat tracks of Asia. Dinesh Karthik was a better option. He was the top run scorer for India in England. But because he failed to get runs in just 2 tests, he has been thrown away. Why dont they follow the same principle for Dravid and chuck him out of Test Team also. He shiould have been penalised fore the slow game in Oval by BCCI
