Six weeks happen to be a long time in Indian cricket. Just last month, Rahul Dravid was the unquestioned leader with a penchant for Test wins abroad — a survivor who had come through the traumatic World Cup exit and the Greg Chappell saga. But today, there is a colossal question mark over his ODI career. Barely a fortnight after he lost his place in the final XI for the last one-day game in Mumbai against Australia, Dravid, currently going through one of the leanest periods in his career, finds himself out of the 15 for the first two one-dayers against Pakistan next month.Chairman of India’s selection committee Dilip Vengsarkar insists that Dravid has just been “rested” and will be back soon. But this surely is a sign of things to come as talented youngsters start pushing for the Team India cap.Former opening dasher Virender Sehwag takes Dravid’s place, for now, while his Delhi colleague Gautam Gambhir returns after injury for the series opener — others left out were middle-order batsmen S Badrinath and Dinesh Karthik. Besides, UP’s all-round utility man Praveen Kumar gets his first big break.According to Vengsarkar, “Rahul hasn’t been playing well for some time. We wanted to give him a break for a while. He is a great player and he will be back soon.” Vengsarkar added that the selectors had consulted skipper Mahendra Dhoni over phone before finalising the team for the two games in Guwahati (Nov 5) and Mohali (Nov 8). But it is understood that the selection committee was divided on Dravid in their Ahmedabad meeting that lasted close to two hours, but a consensus was reached since they didn’t want the uncomfortable scenario of a former captain doing drinks duty. “Maybe, he would have fitted in the 15. But as we saw during the Australia ODI series, it is tough to take him in the XI with the kind of form he is in,” said a national selector after the meeting. Dravid had averaged just 10.2 during the recent one-day series against Australia that India lost 2-4. Though in the recent past, there has been the precedent of former skipper Sourav Ganguly fighting to regain his touch and making a comeback, the road for Dravid wouldn’t be easy. Simply because the selectors admit that the competition is hotting up in the batting department. Besides Dhoni, Yuvraj Singh, Ganguly, Sachin Tendulkar, Gambhir, Sehwag, Robin Uthappa and Rohit Sharma who were picked today, there are several batsmen who have come up with creditable shows in the ongoing Challenger Trophy in Ahmedabad. Tamil Nadu’s Badrinath, Bengal’s Manoj Tewary and UP’s Suresh Raina have been in fine touch and it will be tough for the selectors to avoid them for long.Ironically, Dravid’s drop coincides with the start of the domestic season. And with Karnataka expected to play Mumbai in the season-opening Ranji game at Mumbai, Dravid has a chance to be at the Wankhede stadium, from where he was first “rested”. From the look of things now, it seems Dravid might miss the entire one-day series against Pakistan (five games), though he will be among the first to be picked for the three Tests that follow. And then, like in the past, he will once again get an opportunity to change himself from Wall to Wallop.The Team: Mahendra Singh Dhoni (capt), Yuvraj Singh, Virender Sehwag, Sourav Ganguly, Sachin Tendulkar, Gautam Gambhir, Robin Uthappa, Rohit Sharma, Harbhajan Singh, Murali Kartik, Zaheer Khan, R P Singh, Irfan Pathan, S Sreesanth and Praveen Kumar.
