The Hindu : Sport : Time for Dravid to rally his forces

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Saturday, Jan 20, 2007
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Time for Dravid to rally his forces

G. Viswanath

Pressure piling up on Team India and the captain

— Photo: AFP

AIMING AT THE FUTURE: Skipper Rahul Dravid will be looking to reply to criticism of his captaincy by winning the series against the West Indies and Sri Lanka.

Nagpur: Rahul Dravid faces a stern captaincy test in the one-day skirmishes against the West Indies and Sri Lanka.

An introvert, but the epitome of a gentleman cricketer, Dravid has been under constant scrutiny ever since he was handed the mantle of captaincy nearly 15 months ago. A period that coincided with Australian batting maestro Greg Chappell taking over as coach from John Wright.

It's not been smooth sailing for Dravid, though his team trounced Sri Lanka and scored creditable victories over Andrew Flintoff's England, Inzamam-ul-Haq's Pakistan and won a Test series in the West Indies for the first time in 35 years. His tenure so far has been blotted by a few setbacks, the marked one being the reverse in South Africa.

Long-term goals

Dravid has been a classic example of the saying `a captain is only as good as his team'. Several times, he had to lead a team brimming with budding batsmen, rookie fast bowlers and an off-spinner — Harbhajan Singh — who failed to deliver the goods overseas. Taking the cue from Chappell, Dravid came out strongly in favour of following a process not necessarily weighed down by results, instead guiding young hopefuls and building a team for the future. He set his sights on long-term goals.

Of a calm, composed and cool-headed disposition, Dravid was the butt of criticism from some former India cricketers, though Sunil Gavaskar gave him full marks on the captaincy count in South Africa. Even if he was distracted by the comments on the electronic media, he did not react and carried on in dignified fashion.

Immense pressure

Dravid was under immense pressure right through the two-month series in South Africa. Winning the first Test at The Wanderers temporarily off-set the losses in the One-Day Internationals. Held in high esteem by the world's leading commentators as well as opponents for his technical soundness and ability to score on seaming and bouncy pitches, Dravid's powers of concentration appeared to have let him down in South Africa.

Courageous and gutsy, opting to face the new ball in Pakistan, Dravid did not deem it fit to do so against the South African pace pack spearheaded by Makhaya Ntini, though Virender Sehwag's quick departure from the scene of action put Dravid through the wringer straightaway.

He did not succeed a great deal, and considering that he is a batsman with a remarkable overseas record, Dravid, must be chagrined with his performance on the tour.

The selectors and the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) may, perhaps, be right in finding fault in his decision to field Sehwag and seamer Munaf Patel in the eleven in the crucial third Test at Cape Town. The Sehwag-Munaf episode left the national selectors and BCCI officials unhappy. The upshot of which was Tendulkar being named vice-captain.

Proactive role

"Tendulkar is an experienced player and he's been named deputy to guide Dravid," said Vengsarkar. Tendulkar in his reply to a question whether he would take charge after the World Cup, said, "I am focused on the World Cup and all talk of captaincy is premature."

The selectors want Tendulkar, who was once described as `the team's mentor' by Chappell, to play a proactive role in order to lessen the pressure on Dravid.

The hotly debated topic in Indian cricket may die away should Dravid enjoy success in the series against the West Indies and Sri Lanka and in the World Cup.

The home supporters — a full house is guaranteed here for the first ODI on Sunday will expect nothing less than a winning start. Pressure is piling up on the team and Dravid in particular. Spending four days with the Karnataka team in the Ranji Trophy match against Saurashtra would have provided an opportunity for Dravid to relax a bit. But the time has come for him to deploy his forces and make a confident start.

Practice session

Meanwhile at the team's practice session at the VCA ground, Sreesanth was having own fun after a long bowling stint, throwing down stumps with his left hand. Even as Sreesanth was accurately hitting a set of plastic stumps from 15 metres, Harbhajan Singh was having a special session with Ian Frazer, the team's bio-mechanical expert.

Thereafter Frazer tossed off-breaks to left-handers Gautam Gambhir, Suresh Raina and Dinesh Karthik and gave them an extended batting session after the team had left the ground.

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