‘Dravid needs to get brain sorted out’

Former Australian captain Ian Chappell has taken a break from his role of supporting Shane Warne in his battle against Adam Gilchrist to offer his opinion on the state of former India captain Rahul Dravid’s mental  health.

“He probably needs a bit of a talking to, to get his brain sorted out,” Chappell was quoted as saying in Australia’s Herald Sun newspaper. “He survived a dropped catch, was caught off a no-ball and only made five. He will be kicking himself,” said the former batting star, referring to his first innings’ score in the first Test against Australia.

Dravid, who relinquished the captaincy after India’s successful tour of England this summer, managed just 16 runs in the Boxing Day Test just ended, as India lost by 337 runs. In his first innings, he managed to score five runs from 66 balls, an innings that is already being talked of as one of the most boring in Melbourne history.

“Dravid’s batting was so dull that at one stage the Test slow scoring world-record of English wicketkeeper Godfrey Evans, who remained scoreless for 97 minutes in Adelaide in 1946, came into view,” said Chappell. He insisted Dravid’s “mental approach was a major problem.”

His role as opener has surely added to both the pressure and the scrutiny that ‘The Wall’ currently finds himself under. His skipper Anil Kumble, however, is positive. “He’s too good a player to worry about his batting. He needs to relax, go out and enjoy his batting. I am positive that he would be able to do it,” Kumble said in the post-match press conference.

“He has played over 100 Tests and scored 9000 plus runs and is too good to be intimidated. I am pretty confident that he would come out and bat the way he normally does,” he added. Whatever it takes to get his batting brain out of the doldrums, it had better happen fast. Just three days separate the Melbourne match with the Sydney edition, and if Dravid is still opening the batting there, the knives will be out.