In the middle of a second wind and after doing the hard yards in tough conditions, Rahul Dravid has been stopped in his tracks for the more comfortable home stretch.

India’s T20 World Championship disaster and the question mark over some young batsmen’s technique against short bowling had seen the national selectors draft the tried and tested Dravid with eyes on the Champions Trophy in South Africa. The 36-year-old did provide the solidity to the line-up that was expected from him, but in a sudden flip-flop, the national selectors dropped him on Thursday for the upcoming home series against Australia.

Ironically, Indian cricket’s ‘Wall’ was used to temporarily plug a hole in the team. Neither his 10,000-plus ODI runs nor his scoring sequence of 14, 47, 39, 76 and 4 since he wore the India blues after a gap of two years justified the decision taken by the selectors. It was a U-turn — not totally unexpected from the selectors, who often switch between ‘youth’ and ‘experience’ on team-selection days. If Dravid’s inclusion was arguable in the first place, his exclusion after playing just five games was equally debatable.

Kohli included

Replacing him in the middle-order will be the 20-year-old Virat Kohli, who finally got named in the original squad after being the first-choice replacement for all injured players in recent times. Kohli flew in after Gautam Gambhir failed a fitness test in Sri Lanka and later during the Champions Trophy he replaced the injured Yuvraj Singh. His one notable inning during his in-and-out stint with the Indian team was a 79 in the inconsequential game against the West Indies after the team had already been knocked out in the Champions Trophy. There is no denying that Kohli has potential but experts wondered if there was a pressing hurry to include him in the squad.

... contd.