Even though the youth Team India is performing great, there is still a need of players of the calibre of Rahul Dravid in the ODI team.
Ever since Greg Chappell became the coach of Team India, cries of the seniors being thrown out started. While Greg was rightfully thrown out of the team, the seniors have ever since had problems getting a much deserved place in the team. Barring the iconic Tendulkar, none had or still has been able to grab a position which a few years ago was left untouched. A couple of them took retirements and the others are still banking on the test matches. But do we really do not need them in the ODI team?
Okay, no doubt that we have promising young players who are performing wonderfully well but most have been doing well in patches. Consistency is the key to be able win regularly and stay on the top in the longer run. Moreover, performing in crunch and pressure situations is what determines the true character of the players and that is something that comes with experience. Although Dhoni might be right in going for an all youth team in order to build a team for the next World Cup but where will they gain the skill that comes with experience? Be it school, college or work, we always learn from our seniors. While you might contradict and even I always thought that learning by yourself is the best way to learn, but that's not always true.
India reached the no.1 ODI spot a few days ago but that was only to lose it to Australia. Why? We all saw how Sachin single handedly almost won us a match chasing a target of 350 and then we saw how we lost the series 4-2 after leading 2-1. Then we won somehow against SriLanka, couple of matches we almost lost, at home and then went to Bangladesh to lose twice that to to a weakened Lankan team. We even did not win against Bangladesh in the most comprehensive manner! I was thinking about writing this since quite some time but held myself back but the way we lost in the final couldn't stop me from writing this post. I know it's kinda old thing and everybody's talking about the Ranji Final Karnataka lost couple of days ago, donno how we lost that match, 6 runs is too close to lose a Ranji Final!
But the final in Bangladesh is something that can't be forgotten. What was lacking? In my view it was only one thing - Experience. At 47/4 you cannot expect to win or even think of a good defending total unless you have experience in your team. Only an experienced player, of the stature of Rahul Dravid could have saved us the blues. While some might argue that Raina played a good knock and to a certain extent that's true as well, but what he did was - Saved us the blues, or else we would have got bowled out inside 40 overs. He saved us from that disgrace but was that enough to win!
A player like Rahul is not one who only scores runs himself, but does an equally important task of supporting the batsmen at the other end. When some one knows that the other end there's Rahul (or a Sachin for that matter) then it allows the batsman to play more freely and with MUCH less pressure. Since Sachin had opted out, selectors should have straightaway asked Rahul to join the team. At least one trusted/experience middle order batsman is necessary for any team. Time and again we've seen that it's the seniors that get us out of trouble. When we have a good start it's easy for other batsmen to play their natural game and everyone scores. Probably that is why we have assumed that the team is complete and we don't need a blendid team and can do with a young team.
As I write this post, Rahul was out early in the test match against Bangladesh and India are in trouble, but it's again Sachin whose saved us from being bowled out disgracefully by a team whose test status is still questioned by most!
Rahul has been consistently scoring runs in tests as well as domestic matches. He still averages over 53 and stands equal to Ricky Ponting - who is still leading the Australian side successfully while we have a player of such calibre out from our team! I still cannot believe this, a player with more than 10,000 runs in ODI's is sitting out of the team! Come on BCCI, WAKE UP - We still NEED Rahul Dravid in the ODI Team!
Well, these are my personal views and may not match with yours, but I'd love to discuss with everybody out here!
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