Time to hang boots?
Manoj Madhavan -
Thursday, August 07, 2008 7:29 PM
With both Rahul Dravid and Saurav Ganguly out of the Indian team for the ODI series in Sri Lanka, I am afraid the two veterans of more than 600 one-dayers between them, may not after all get a chance to announce their retirement. Bowing out in style, as they say, may not really be meant for them.
But then, they don’t have anything to write back home from their last 10 ODIs. Take this. Rahul has scored a paltry 136 runs, and Saurav fares slightly better with 284 runs.
But my point is, should these icons be given a chance to plan their retirement? Can we, as a team, afford to continue to give them ‘chances’, taking away precious time from youngsters in the wing. We have a good example in Javagal Srinath, who had to wait for almost two years for Kapil Dev to retire. Should Dravid and Ganguly understand the circumstances and make way, gracefully.
I know it is difficult, but such are the demands of modern-day cricket. I would surely want to stand and salute Sachin Tendulkar when he plays his last ODI/Test innings.
There have been a lot of talk about Virender Sehwag’s last 11 hundred plus scores: all of them were over 150. And I guess most of us thought that when Sehwag scored, India invariably managed a win. No, it was not always like that.
Out of 15 Tests in which Sehwag scored a hundred, India managed to win only three. Nine of these have been draws. Even out of the three matches India won, Sehwag’s 201 against Sri Lanka at Galle stands out for number of reasons. Gautam Gambhir’s 74 was the next best score of the innings. Even the best players struggled on the pitch that assisted the spinners all through the match.
Sehwag’s score stands out because never in the marathon knock did he let the strike rate go down. Sehwag carried on, despite wickets tumbling at the other end.
Sehwag’s form will be crucial for India’s series victory.