It is early days

It is early days for Rahul Dravid and he may still prove me wrong. There has never been a born to be a cricket captain, captaincy actually grows on one, and it is a very slow constantly learning process. Among other things, one of the factors that signals the start the beginning of the end of a successful stint of a captain is the moment when the captains starts believing that he knows everything one needs to know about being a successful captain. This is when the captain starts strategising on preconceived ideas, stops thinking out of the box solutions, stops discussing cricket with his teammates and generally adopts a mechanical approach. If batting second in the previous game brought victory then it will jolly well be case in this match as well and so decide to field after winning the toss without bothering about the state of the wicket, about the weather, about own and rivals’ team composition and many other things that one does in such circumstances. Five bowlers under all circumstances? Yes, why not, that is how we have always structured our team. Even when the top and the lower order are struggling?

Dravid hasn’t reached that stage yet and that is why he may still prove me wrong; all the same I am pretty seriously worried about the defensive streak that Dravid has so strongly demonstrated in his captaincy so far. He is not willing to take a chance at a win unless he is absolutely certain that he will not lose the game. The very very late surge in Nagpur, the exceptionally slow batting on the third day at Mohali is just two recent examples. Even at Mumbai where the final Test is currently on, decision to field first and piking five bowlers just reflect Dravid’s defensive mindset. He seems to be so worried about the batting form of two of his batsmen that even before the match started he had decided that he wont take chance batting first and get out to a small total, better pick five bowlers and try to get the opposition out cheaply. In theory a good thinking, but field first at Wankehde? Were Sachin and other cricketers who know a thing or two about Wankehde not around to advise him? With India at 218/8 at tea on the third day, there is only one winner at this time.