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
