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Dravid to don the big gloves

By G. Viswanath

Melbourne Jan. 7. Rahul Dravid will return to his now-familiar position as wicketkeeper for the VB Series tournament, the opening match of which will feature India and Australia on Friday. The selectors had picked two wicketkeepers for the Test series — Parthiv Patel and Deep Dasgupta — and retained Patel for the tri-series. "Rahul will keep wickets,'' confirmed Indian captain Sourav Ganguly.

The decision to use Dravid as the primary 'keeper for one-day matches was taken in the West Indies in April 2002, so that he could get mentally prepared for the World Cup. The move was to pack the team with seven batsmen for the big event in South Africa.

The experiment with Dravid succeeded and since then, Ganguly has been resolute in having his deputy don the big gloves. Though not very comfortable with the job, Dravid did it in the TVS Cup tri-series at home.

Former cricketers have argued that the National selectors with two former India stumpers in it — Chairman Syed Kirmani and Kiran More — should look at a specialist 'keeper for one-dayers. But Ganguly is clear that India will be best served with Dravid as the wicketkeeper and an additional batsman. The Indian team arrived here in the afternoon from Sydney, but its first full-fledged net session will begin only on Thursday.

As has been the practice in recent times, the team management left it to the players to decide whether to travel to the MCG for practice. Yuvraj Singh, who was the substitute for Virender Sehwag for a short period on the fifth day of the Sydney Test, Sanjay Bangar and Hemang Badani utilised the opportunity to get used to the conditions. Rohan Gavaskar, picked as a replacement for the injured Mohammad Kaif, is expected to reach here in time for Thursday's net session.

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