Rahul Dravid could return to Indian Team again
Rahul Dravid could return to Indian Team again
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Virender Sehwag's shoulder injury has paved the way for Rahul Dravid's return to the one-day team for the Sri Lanka triangular series and the Champions Trophy in South Africa.
The Indian team for the two events will be named in Chennai on August 16. The 36-year-old Dravid played the last of his 333 ODIs almost two years ago on October 14, 2007u00a0versus Australia at Nagpur.
The selectors want to bring back the veteran player in the light of the batting order's weakness against short pitch bowling, one of the reasons why India failed to retain its World T20 crown in England. Dravid has been named in the 30-man probables list for the Champions Trophy.
Sehwag will visit the National Cricket Academy in Bangalore for a final check-up on August 15 but he admitted recently that he hasn't held a bat after his shoulder operation in England during the World T20.
Legendary status
Had Sehwag been fit for selection, they would have found it difficult to accommodate Dravid, a scenario which would not have gone down well with the Indian fans given the Karnataka champ's legendary status.
Sachin Tendulkar, Gautam Gambhir, Yuvraj Singh, Suresh Raina and M S Dhoni are near certainties in the batting line-up and Sehwag's injury has made the selectors' job easier. Dravid is almost a certainty unless skipper Dhoni views the former India captain's inclusion as a backward step.
It is widely believed that Dravid was dropped from the ODI team in 2007 at the insistence of the Indian skipper.
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The Champions Trophy will be played in South Africa where the wickets are known to have pace and bounce. A batsman without solid technique doesn't have much of a chance to succeed. Hence, the reliance on Dravid.
The Bangalore batsman has regained his form and after a fine Test tour of New Zealand, he did well in the Twenty20 Indian Premier League for runners-up Royal Challengers in South Africa.
Other players likely to be picked are Yusuf Pathan, Dinesh Kartik, Abhishek Nayar, Ashish Nehra, R P Singh, Ishant Sharma, Harbhajan Singh, Pragyan Ojha or Amit Mishra, Praveen Kumar or Munaf Patel. From the team that played in the one-day series in West Indies, Ravindra Jadeja is likely to get the axe. The selectors feel he did not do well with the opportunities offered to him.
There could be a toss-up between Nayar and Sharma (both Mumbai boys) but the selectors feel Nayar has an advantage being an all-rounder.
Dravid's probable inclusion makes one wonder whatever happened to BCCI's youth policy.
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