07/07/2009

Why Dravid?

I am surprised at the inclusion of Dravid in the probable’s list for the Champions Trophy and I am sure Dravid himself would have been taken aback.

When ICC itself is thinking of rejuvenating the The Champions Trophy, it is undoubtedly funny that the Indian selectors steered by the garrulous Srikanth have selected a player who last played an ODI during 2007 against Australia at Nagpur.

The only seemingly logical argument for his inclusion is that the ODI cricket tournament is to be played in South Africa and that too in Johannesburg and Pretoria, two grounds where Dravid had a measure of success during the IPL 2009.

If the selectors are considering Dravid for his technique, then it speaks poorly of the current crop of players. However, that argument fails if you consider that Raina and Rohit too had a superlative IPL 2009 especially at the Wanderers and at the Centurion.

In essence, I believe this retrograde step is unwarranted and more in line with giving the veteran of 333 ODI’s an opportunity to pad up his income. I say this with outmost conviction, Dravid is not going to play and hence another youngster in his place would have gained the much-needed exposure to the international cricket atmosphere.

Probables:

M S Dhoni

Virender Sehwag

Gautam Gambhir

Yuvraj Singh

Rohit Sharma

Sachin Tendulkar

Rahul Dravid

Suresh Raina

Yusuf Pathan

Abhishek Nayar

Ishant Sharma

Zaheer Khan

R P Singh

Praveen Kumar

Harbhajan Singh

Pragyan Ojha

Ravindra Jadeja

Dinesh Karthik

Munaf Patel

R Ashwin

M Vijay

Amit Mishra

Ajinkya Rahane

Dhawal Kulkarni

S Badrinath

Ashish Nehra

Virat Kohli

Bhuvneshwar Kumar Singh

Wridhiman Saha

Pankaj Singh.

8 comments:

straight point said...

selectors are just hiding in the shelter of big name...

Viswanathan said...

But they already have Tendulkar.:)

Som said...

I still hope Dravid will opt out. Man, he would suffocate in that Youngistan dressing room.

straight point said...

oh...i shud hv put another big name... ;-)

straight point said...

som...exactly my sentiments

Viswanathan said...

Som,

Alternatively, his presence may suffocate the Youngistan dressing room.:)

Viswanathan said...

Pan,

The big one is still lurking, picking and choosing games.:)

LVISS said...

I thought the champions trophy was for the first three teams in the ipl and other finalists from other countries. Not surprised by Dravids inclusion. We never look forward.