The Hindu : Sport : ‘Dropping Dravid is ridiculous’

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Wednesday, Oct 31, 2007
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Sport

Sport

‘Dropping Dravid is ridiculous’

Special Correspondent

KOLKATA: Former India player, Ajay Jadeja, on Tuesday questioned the selection procedure adopted to pick the Indian team to play Pakistan in the first two one-dayers of the five-match series.

Speaking to reporters here, he slammed the selectors’ decision to drop former India captain Rahul Dravid and asked on what basis Virender Sehwag was included.

“Not picking Dravid is ridiculous. If he is dropped owing to lack of form, the selectors went and chose Sehwag. Undoubtedly, Sehwag is an exceptional cricketer. The selectors cannot pick him based on his past performance. He is not in any sort of form now,” he said.

Baffling decision

He also questioned the selectors’ contention that the committee was looking at the future.

Jadeja said barring Praveen Kumar, the committee had not chosen Suresh Raina or Dinesh Karthik ever after their tremendous performance in the Challenger Series.

Jadeja pointed out that a year ago Sourav Ganguly was not good enough to play for the country and now he is the one for the future.

“The same thing will happen with Dravid. Now he is not good enough but a few weeks later he will be,” he said.

Time to groom Dhoni

The former India all-rounder said Mahendra Singh Dhoni should be groomed to captain both the ODI and Test squads. Jadeja felt the Indian team should be a mix of youth and experience.

“Experience does have a role to play which Ganguly showed.”

On the upcoming ODI series against Pakistan, he said, “it will be a competitive series with extra aggression shown by the teams,” and added, “the series could be won 3-2 by either team.”

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