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ShareFor Dravid, it's not just about finding his old form; it's about finding a new identity
The emphasis is on power and aggression, rather than technique -- the latter being the servant, not the master." No, that's not me advising Rahul Dravid to take a leaf out of Virender Sehwag's book. That was Donald Bradman on what he liked about the batting of Garfield Sobers.
Dravid is of course more in the Geoffrey Boycott league, choosing to make defence his first impulse. This has served him well in the past, earning him the moniker of The Wall as he became the anchor of Indian batting for a few years.
But that conservatism proved his undoing too. It went to an extreme under the added weight of captaincy and completely choked up his game. The worst example of it came in England last year, when he did not enforce the follow-on with his team right on top, and then proceeded to block everything, scoring 12 runs off 96 balls and pushing the game into a draw. It's been a rapid decline for Dravid ever since, having to forego his captaincy and then his place in the one-day side.
Now he's in a struggle to save his Test cap, with pressure mounting after every match, as support for him gets muted and calls for his retirement get louder. This is manifested in Dravid's batting. He seems caught between trying to survive and lashing out in desperation, thrusting way outside off-stump or staying rooted to the crease and playing across the line -- the two modes of his dismissal in Chennai.
It's been obvious for some time now that Dravid needs to go back to the drawing board. But it's hard to reinvent your game when the predominant thought in your head is not to let the team down each time you go out to bat. Added to that is the array of advice coming from all sides.
He might still be able to pull off the odd fifty, or even a century, but the chances of his finding consistent form keep dwindling because what he really needs is a makeover. Dravid has to ask himself if a team that is now potentially the best in the world, which scores at nearly four an over even while chasing almost 400 on a wearing 5th day
Chennai wicket, needs a dour, defensive batsman any more.
The selectors have probably done him a disservice by allowing him to continue in the team and try to work himself back into form. While his average in the last five series has gone below 30 -- half of the Test average of 58 he had at one point -- this struggle series after series has also not given Dravid much scope for introspection to find a new way.
But how do you drop a guy who still has a Test average of over 50? That seems to be the selectors' dilemma, although this was nowhere in evidence when Sehwag was left out of the first Test in Australia despite his 50-plus average. In any case, the shock of being dropped and time off from the spotlight seem to have done Sehwag a world of good.
Sourav Ganguly, Mathew Hayden, Sanath Jayasuriya and Virender Sehwag all came back stronger, fitter and more focussed after being dropped. Even Sachin Tendulkar appears to have benefited from the breaks he has had for rest or recuperation, coming out of the shell into which he had retreated. The question is whether Dravid, at 35, has the motivation and will to put in the hours of hard practice and exercise that have to go into a comeback.
He did it when he was younger, after being dropped from the one-day team. He suddenly unfurled his entire range of stroke play, especially after his place in the side was assured as a wicket-keeper in Ganguly's World Cup squad. He needs to do something similar in Test cricket. Maybe it's time for him to break down The Wall and build a new batting identity for himself.
Either that or he should put up his hand and call it quits. Remember what Adam Gilchrist said after he quit -- that the decision became clear to him after a routine catch off a Brett Lee ball bounced off the heel of his hand because he was a fraction too slow in getting to it. This has an uncanny similarity with the catches that Dravid -- one of the greatest slip fielders of all time -- has been spilling of late. Are those a reflection of his current mental makeup or slowing reflexes?
At the end of the day, what fans want to see is dignity for one of the greats of Indian cricket. That's why the sooner Dravid goes for a makeover or calls it quits the better. Whatever happens, nobody can take away from him that final day in Adelaide when he took India home to victory, much like Tendulkar did in Chennai this week.
The writer is a senior editor with the DNA Group
