Still the best batsman in the world

UMPIRE'S POST

Have the selectors run out of patience with Rahul Dravid?

Forty-two days is an awfully long time in sport. Exactly how long, ask Rahul Dravid. Dropped for the last ODI against Australia, for only the second time in an 11-year career, he was the captain of the team in all formats two months ago.

The selectors are using the euphemism of "rested", but the fact remains that they would not have rested him had he been scoring runs, or were he the captain. In fact, it would have been a good opportunity for him to regain his touch, given that this was a dead rubber, with less pressure.

In the run-up to the World Cup in 2003, Dravid went 12 innings without a fifty. Before this year's World Cup, he went 10. He was yet to match up to these dry runs when he was rested. Perhaps the difference is that in the first dry run, he had agreed to keep wickets in a team that did not have an all-rounder and desperately needed balance. In the second, he was the skipper. This time, did selectors run out of patience because he is of little use when not scoring runs?

But you don't extend that kind of treatment to a player who has been a cornerstone of your batting even when being shuffled around: pushed up the order when the team is struggling and down when the others are scoring. And yet, he has logged over 10,000 runs in ODIs at an average of around 40 "" very respectable for someone batting at number three or four for the better part of his career.

According to the grapevine, when the team bus left the hotel for the Wankhede stadium, Dravid still did not know whether he was playing. Is this treatment the payment he is having to make for the way he conducted himself during Chappell's "cleansing" campaign?

Those were the days of intrigue, email and allegations "" mostly originating from Chappell. Dravid, in the centre of the storm, still decided to stay clear. In the process, he did not side with his mates, and was seen to be with Chappell, who went after Ganguly, and later Sachin. The tables have turned.

Whatever may be the cause, Indian cricket needs to wake up to Dravid's utility. He is, still, perhaps the best batsman in the world at one drop, the most difficult position in the line-up. He can consolidate if one of the openers goes early and accelerate if the opening stand is sound "" just the man to follow Sachin-Ganguly. There is no point in wishing for an Ian Bell or Damien Martyn if we do not utilise Dravid, who is better than both.