RD has been pathetic...

[yoda]

Poor captaincy, below average batting. Would rate this his worst test series ever. He might want to give up the captaincy and go back to batting.

[Anakin]

Re: RD has been pathetic... A bad series isn't too much of a concern as a batsman

[talksport]

Re: RD has been pathetic... We havent been rolled over.... Well done Dravid and co.

[Raj]

Re: RD has been pathetic... Really poor series for Dravid both as batsman and captain. He needs to think long and hard about his current role in the side.

[Mandrake]

Re: RD has been pathetic... These guys really need to beat complacency..I'm pretty sure most of them were all fine and dandy after winning the 1st test and happily handed the series to SA.....Dravid had a poor series as a batsman and probably that played on his leadership too......and are we going to hear anything abt the pathetic umpiring from either Chapell or Dravid or they have already moved on which means we will get more of this in the future.....

[Sachin_Rulez]

Re: RD has been pathetic... Relax yoda, don't get emotional! yes, dravid had medicore series with bat but he was hard done by blind umpires out there. I won't consider this series as total failure. Heck we won our first test match against SA in SA. We had good chance of winning the series or atleast level the series but we messed it up and blame should go to all batters who failed to convert their starts to big score. Our so called match winner kumble couldn't take a single wicket on fifth day when the pitch was favoring slow bolwers (not a square turner though). I'm sure warne or murali would have ran through opposition batting line up given similar conditions and situation. Vengskar is probably one of the most biased slector I've ever seen. He keep on playing his pet jaffer in ODIs, tour matches and test matches despite that FTB struggling to score runs. Yeah, at last he came good in first innings of third test match when conditions were truly similar to India's (he only stated that) and with wicket doing not much. When going gets tough that idiot got out quickly in second innigns. Yes, sehwag doesn't deserve a place in test side but so was jaffer. But why was vengy pointing to only sehwag and not jaffer. Ideally we should have dropped both and opted for ghambir and one extra bowler but well....

[King]

Re: RD has been pathetic... I don't reckon captaincy sucked. Rahul set some excellent fields and made good bowling changes usually. In particular his field set for the faster bowlers once they started to get reverse swing was quite good. Akram on air said the field set up for the reverse swing was the best he saw by an Indian captain. With the ball reversing the ball don't usually go to slips and Rahul noticed that early enough to keep short covers, short mid wicket as catching and fielding positions. One area where he sucked as a captain was not going for the traditional 3rd man in the second test. The ball was doing a lot and when the lower middle order, tail enders were batting he failed to recognize the need of a 3rd man. His field set up to Anil Kumble's bowling was pretty good too. That catch Sehwag brought up to remove Smith was one intelligent piece of field set. As a batter I will probably excuse him too as he was hounded by the hapless umpires through out the series. I cannot excuse him for not being his own man. When Tendulkar shut the shop in the 3rd test he should either have suggested Tendulkar to retire or he should have simply accelarated. Unfortunately he fell in line with Tendulkar's thinking and gave the game as a gift on a platter to the Saffies. If India did lot better than they usually did then Rahul needs to be complimented but at the same time he needs to be blamed for the series loss too. He was right in the middle in the 3rd test and could have controlled the game but he preferred to play lame cricket. :shrug:

[Lurker]

Re: RD has been pathetic...

I don't reckon captaincy sucked.

Ravi, I think Dravid's captainship needs to be analyzed seriously. He does not lack the strategical insights clearly, his field placements are often fantastic and I have seen India take wickets solely because of that. However his captainship is anything but inspirational. He comes across as belonging to the Azharuddin school of thought that "if you are in National team you should have enough motivation". Now clearly that does not work for Indian players. A Sreesanth does not need motivation nor does a Kumble but players like Jaffer, Harbhajna, Zaheer Khan and so on clearly do. He seems like too much of a nice guy. There is no way you can compare him in aggression with the likes of say Ponting, Lara or Graeme Smith. You can perhaps compare him with Inzamam and trust me thats not a company of great captains. It is also not a case of Dravid getting enough chances. He has led us in atleast 3 completed series(Windies, England, South Africa). He should have stamped his authority on this team. Sadly it is missing. If you ask me Dravid is captain simply because we do not have a better choice. xxxx

[King]

Re: RD has been pathetic... Lurker, I see where you are coming from but from what I know he spends a lot of time off the field with the young uns. He is not a show pony on the field as you would know already but his modus operandi is not like Azhar. Every now and then he has one on one meeting with the players. In fact most young players are on record stating the inspiration they receive from Rahul Dravid. It is possible he may not do similarly with the seniors in the team. He has known them for a long time and he may reckon they all know their jobs. As you pointed out tactically he is one of the best we have had over the years. You may have noticed that it is not the young ones that are not contributing but it is the seniors in the team that are failing to contribute on a consistent basis.

[beetle]

Re: RD has been pathetic... good post ravi... :wtg:

[Guest BossBhai]

Re: RD has been pathetic... -- Removed on request of the user --

[Guest BossBhai]

Re: RD has been pathetic... -- Removed on request of the user --

[yoda]

Re: RD has been pathetic...

BTW how exactly do you expect RD to contribute with the bat when you very well know he was hacked more often than not ?

He was hacked in test 2, agreed. But what about the decider? What about the brain dead decision to send Sehwag in to open in the 2nd? The guy averages 25/innings in 2nd and we just had a 150 run opening stand? And what about the decision to not pick Harby on a "sub-continental" type track?

[beetle]

Re: RD has been pathetic... Most people on most mbs were in favour of motu opening in the second innings on a flat track.... Harby hadn't played any so i can understand not taking him. But i blame him for the slow batting .....he needed to bat faster or tell tendu to do it....between the two of them ...we let the game away.He is responsible there.

[gullu]

Re: RD has been pathetic... Dravid is lucky that loud-mouth Chappell gets most of the blame for defeats. Too many big losses (Karachi, Mumbai, ODI series in WI, ICC, DLF cup) in such a short span. Agreed, Dravid hasn't gotten the type of support that Saurav got from senior players but Ganguly also molded lot of junior players into world class cricketers. If India does poorly in World cup, I would expect Dravid to step down as captain. I always judged Saurav by results not by Charisma or agression. Same applies to Dravid.