rahul dravid the wallA few days back, I read in the newspapers that Rahul Dravid had been thrown a “lifeline” by the Indian selectors regarding his one day career. Lifeline to a legend, how stupid does it sound? However that’s not what this post is about.

Apparently miffed at the lack of spine in the Indian batting lineup when it comes to short pitched bowling, they decided to include Dravid in the list of 30 probable players for the Champions trophy. A classic case of taking one step forward and 2 steps back. Just because the Indian team didn’t make it to the final of the T20 world cup, you bring back a senior player. Guess they still feel that the boys haven’t turned into men. And while one may argue that you need another senior player in the side, what is also to be seen that unlike Tendulkar, who is an automatic selection for a series, Dravid hasn’t had that sort of luck. And God forbid, if Dravid does not land up in the playing eleven, then I can only imagine what must be his thoughts to sit on the bench.

Coming back to the point, as everyone knows, T20 is heavily loaded in the favor of batsmen, who can whack bowlers out of the park at will. However, they will not allow these same batsmen to be tried in the test arena, instead allowing one day and T20 series to be the only place where they can play.

At the other end of the scale is the Indian Test Team, which has all the senior players who have shouldered the burden for ages now. What are the selectors waiting for? To let all these players hang their boots at once and then thrown the younger players into the cauldron without any sort of guidance or support. Of course, one may point out that a couple of players have retired and hence a younger player has been included in the side, the selectors still don’t have enough confidence to allow him to play a full series without keeping the sword of dropping the player after 1 bad innings, let alone a match.

This strategy seriously needs a re-look else the same story of 1 step forward and 2 step backwards will keep continuing.