Dravid’s exclusion a graceless act

Rahul Dravid would be justified in feeling used and abused. Brought in a few weeks back to shore up the suspect Indian batting against short-pitched bowling, he finds himself bowled neck and crop by a grubber, as it were, and this one bowled by the selectors themselves.

With Gautam Gambhir, Virender Sehwag and Yuvraj Singh available, there was always going to be a jostling for space in the batting line-up. These three, along with Tendulkar, select themselves in the playing eleven, and with skipper Dhoni to follow, the scope for a batsman like Dravid at number six is admittedly reduced. But should he have been summarily axed at this point in time? And so unceremoniously, as to belittle a great batsman whose contribution to Indian cricket is immense?

Having been dumped more than 18 months ago, Dravid’s surprise return to the side suggested some panic in the cricket establishment after the disaster in the Twenty20 World Championship. But if he was not seen good enough to last till the 2011 World Cup, this recall was a short-sighted attempt at quelling a crisis, rather than resolving it permanently.

Frankly, not much has changed in the past few weeks where Indian cricket is concerned: the batting still looks suspect, and after a poor performance in the Champions Trophy, there is the need for the team to redeem itself in the forthcoming series against Australia, which boasts a terrific pace attack.

Even though the seven-match series is being played on friendlier home wickets than those that were available in South Africa, Australia’s potent pace attack poses the biggest threat, and Dravid’s presence in the squad would have been of psychological value — if not in the middle itself.

In the few opportunities he has got since his recall, Dravid has looked to be in reasonable form and scored runs at a fair clip. Moreover, none of the Indian batsmen have done anything spectacular in the preceding few months, so the arguments against Dravid — barring his age — would ring shallow.

Evidently, the cricket establishment is looking to build a team (and support staff) for the 2011 World Cup, which explains the mini-purge that took place on Thursday. But while the ouster of coaches Venkatesh Prasad and Robin Singh can be ascribed to India’s poor bowling and fielding form in recent tournaments, Dravid’s sacking is less easily explained; the graceless manner in which it was done, even more so.