Dravid likely to retire on Friday

Rahul Dravid is likely to announce his retirement on Friday. Dravid, 39, has called a press conference in Bangalore that will also be attended by N Srinivasan, the BCCI president.

Dravid is set to be the first of India's senior-most cricketers - including Sachin Tendulkar and VVS Laxman - to quit the game after a season of speculation surrounding their future. His decision follows a poor tour of Australia but he enjoyed a prolific run through 2011, scoring five centuries - including four in the Caribbean and England. However, he is set to captain Rajasthan Royals in the upcoming IPL season.

His decision will end a career that started at Lord's in 1996, when Dravid made 95. Since then, he has been a pillar of the Indian Test side and played 93 consecutive Tests from his debut to December 2005. He will finish with 13,288 Test runs - behind only Tendulkar - in 164 matches, with 36 hundreds at an average of 52.31. He also has 210 catches, a Test record, in addition to 196 catches in ODIs.

Dravid captained in 25 Tests, of which India won eight and lost six. Under his leadership India cemented a newly won reputation for being good travellers, winning Test series in Pakistan in 2003-04 - he captained in two out of three Tests - West Indies in 2006 and in England in 2007.

He will be remembered as one of the last classical Test match batsmen, renowned for his technique and a willingness to bat through difficult circumstances - and over prolonged periods - yet able to stroke the ball around when the mood struck him. He was the anchor of India's famous middle-order, keeping the innings together while the strokeplayers - Tendulkar, Laxman and Ganguly - played a more attacking role. He appeared to especially flourish in partnership with Laxman, never more so than in the Eden Gardens Test of 2001.

His batting qualities and efforts were often overshadowed by the flair of his team-mates yet they were brought into sharp focus over the past year with India's Test team struggling through a period of transition. Dravid showed his class on the tour to England in 2011. In a series in which India were completely outplayed and none of their other batsmen scored more than 275 runs in the Tests, Dravid amassed 461, including three hundreds, two of them when opening the innings against a high-quality pace attack. However, that was followed by a poor series in Australia, which reopened the debate about his retirement.

Rahul Dravid: test records

 

*Dravid holds the world record for being the first (and only) non-wicketkeeper to take 200 catches in Test cricket. As of 27-12-2010, he is way ahead of Mark Waugh (181 catches) and Ricky Ponting (177 catches)
*Dravid is the 2nd Indian (3rd in World) to score more than 12,000 test runs.

*Has been involved in the most century partnerships in Test history - 85 (23 nov 2009).

*Scored nearly 23% of the total runs put up by India (with a batting average of 102.84) in the 21 Test matches won under Ganguly's captaincy. This is the highest percentage contribution by any batsman in Test cricket history in matches won under a single captain where the captain has won more than 20 Tests.
*2nd longest streak of consecutive Tests since debut (93 + 1 in ICC XI) missed 95th test at Ahmedabad due to fever, behind Adam Gilchrist (96).
*Only player to score a century against every Test playing nation away from home.
*Involved in highest partnership made away from home for any wicket for India with vice captain Virender Sehwag of 410 runs vs Pakistan at Lahore in 2006 (also, the highest partnership between a captain and the vice captain). Only Pankaj Roy and Vinoo Mankad have scored more runs in a partnership for India, 413 vs New Zealand in Chennai (6-11 Jan 1956).
*Dravid is one among the only three batsmen to hit Test centuries in four consecutive innings. The other two are Jack Fingleton and Alan Melville. Dravid achieved this by hitting scores of 115, 148, 217 and 100* in three successive matches against England and one against the West Indies. Only Everton Weekes, with centuries in five consecutive innings, has achieved a longer sequence of consecutive Test hundreds.
*With scores of 50 or more in 7 consecutive Tests Dravid is behind only to Tendulkar (8) and Gambhir (11) among Indian batsmen. Gambhir and Viv Richards hold the world record with 11.
*He is currently 2nd among batsmen who have scored most away runs in Tests (6430 as of April 2009). Only Sachin Tendulkar (7165) has scored more away Test runs.

*He has played 150 innings of 94 tests at number 3. He has scored more than 8000 runs at this position. Both feats are world records.

*2nd Indian batsman to score twin hundreds in a Test twice, after Sunil Gavaskar. Gavaskar and Ponting are the only batsmen to score twin hundreds in a Test thrice.

*One of only three Indians to score 5 double hundreds.(each bigger than the previous 200* vs Zimbabwe, 217 vs England, 222 vs New Zealand, 233 vs Australia, 270 vs Pakistan). In fact, along with Virender Sehwag and Sachin Tendulkar, he is one of only three Indians to score 190+ on seven occasions.

*Partnering with Tendulkar, has scored more runs than any other pair, excluding opening pairs. They are the 3rd best in terms of total number of partnership runs scored by a pair in test cricket.

*Dravid has faced highest number of deliveries in test cricket, more than Allan Border's previous record of 27002 deliveries.
*2nd highest number of fifties in test cricket after Australia's Allan Border (63) and jointly shared with compatriot Sachin Tendulkar (59)

*Rahul Dravid is the third batsman in the world after compatriot Sachin Tendulkar and Australia's Ricky Ponting to reach the 12000-run milestone in test cricket.

 

 

Test records

Matches: 156
Innings: 271
Runs: 12616
Avg: 52.56
50s: 60
100s: 34
HS: 270

Latest achievements

-->He is now the 2nd highest run scorer in Test cricket, crossing Ricky Ponting

-->He is the highest scorer in the world in the 4th innings surpassing Brian Lara

-->First cricketer to take 200 catches

-->Third test player to score 12000+ runs

-->He has been a part of 85 century partnerships (world record)


-->Rahul Dravid and Sachin Tendulkar hold the record of highest 100 run partnerships (19) leaving Ponting and Hayden behind (16)

India at WC 2011: Time for the Knockout Punch

So here we are into the knockout stages!!! The super eights are gone so now there’s no second reprieve. 3 Hurdles to jump across and only 1 will reach the finish line. The question is Can it be Team India?
After the loss to South Africa, I read a lot about India no longer standing a chance to win the WC2011 with several reasons. But a quick rewind to The ICC Knockout Cup 2000-01 will eliminate all talks of favourites at a Knockout Stage.
India wasn’t fielding its best side then that would look good enough to win the tournament. Let alone win they weren’t supposed to play more than 2 matches. The first being Kenya and the second being Reigning World Champions Australia. That Aussie side had everything yet they lost to India in the 2nd i.e. the QF stage and India went on to beat South Africa in the semis(again South Africa was carrying top players) and suddenly India went to the Final as Favourites as opposed to New Zealand who had for the first time seen what it is to be in final but there was a twist in the tale and NZ surprised everybody including themselves by beating India.
The point I wish to make is that from here onwards all 8 teams have a chance as in the K/O stage if one player of your team performs extremely well that might just be enough to upstage the opponent.
Similarities to that tournament and this tournament from the Indian Point of View:
1. India enter the game against Aussies as clear non-favourites (I don’t think so though!!)
2. The bowling attack again isn’t that strong. Obviously the then Zak wasn’t as good as the now Zak. Prasad was fading away and we had one experienced spinner then in the form of Kumble. Now Bhajji holds Kumble’s position and Munaf takes Agarkar’s place.
3. A non-instrumental keeper. We had Dahiya then and now the skipper Dhoni.





Now I come to what Team India must look to do if it has to win the WC2011

The Batting Order The batting order must not change now. The classic batting order must stand the way it is and there’s a reason to it. You want to mentally prepare yourself to play in that position right from the nets. So Kohli might be preparing himself to play at no.4 so he tries to practise in such conditions and against such type of bowlers. On the other hand Pathan’s setting himself up to play at no.7. On the match day, they are inter-changed and the team collapses.
The Batting Powerplay
A famed batting line-up refrains from taking the Batting Powerplay citing a collapse. Sounds funny!! If common sense prevails then any team will look to slog in the last 5 overs irrespective of it being a PP or not. So why not take a BTT prior to that and make the counterpart use up his strike bowlers then so you face the second string bowlers towards the end.

The Bowling Department
Now there cannot be any more changes in the bowling line-up. Nehra and Sreesanth have to sit out for the rest of the tourney. I still wouldn’t mind if MSD opts playing all 3 spinners in the QFs atleast citing the conditions. Ashwin started off with Zak against the Windies so we might persist with that and have Bhajji and Piyush bowl at changes. The reason is not that I’m a fan of Chawla. The point is that it will give that extra zing in the bowling. 2 offies and a leggie can make it troublesome. Mind you Chawla would be just a pawn. He may not get the wickets but the change of spin that he brings will not let the batsmen settle at the crease . The strike will come from the two offies. Sometimes playing with the opposition’s mind just does the trick. Also Aussies would be a bit vulnerable and play over-cautiously against Chawla with the memories of the practise game at the back of their mind.
MS Dhoni
It’s time for him to buckle up. He has been an utter disappointment and trust me I was expecting it. In my SWOT analysis of Team India I did mention him as a weakness which got me a lot of flak but after the group stages I sadly have been proved right by him. He needs to settle into a mindframe. Either you play like you played against NZ in the practise match i.e your natural game or you rotate the strike without eating too many balls. He has got shoddy footwork and to make up for that he must use his muscle power. But then he must do that in the nets. You cannot just come onto the field and start bashing. He must have realised that on his long walk back after being stumped last match.
Also it’s high time he stops experimenting too much. Harbhajan was the clear choice against SA for the last over but he opted for Nehra and that loss has indirectly landed us a tougher opponent in the QFs. I could somehow relate his decision to give Nehra the ball to his decision to give Joginder Sharma the ball in the last over of the T20 WC2007. 13 runs were needed then and again he has to choose between Bhajji and a seamer. He was lucky then that Misbah played a loose stroke to gift India the Cup. Also Sharma was hit for a six and so was Nehra.
With this I end my post hoping for good nail-biting knockout games and also hope that I will be able to write about what India needs to do to win the Semis next...