Dravid's dilemma

I thought chairman of selectors Kris Srikkanth dropped a hint when he said Rahul Dravid was “just one innings away from regaining his form.” Then he was quoted in another newspaper as saying, “I am sure Dravid will play some extraordinary innings against England.” If I were Dravid, I would sleep peacefully knowing I had the chairman’s backing.

But I am not Dravid, and I doubt if he has been sleeping peacefully of late. The very qualities that make Dravid the great player he is - the intensity, the obsession with getting things right, the habit of introspection - take him down a slippery slope when things are not going well. In my mind’s eye, I can see Dravid asking himself over and over if bowlers have managed to find a technical flaw in his game. Is his elbow high enough in defence? Are his feet moving correctly? Should he play at fewer deliveries, should he play at more?

Dravid would worry about these things even if he were playing a casual game in his backyard with his son Samit. That is the kind of person he is. There has to be an intellectual solution to the problem - he cannot, like, Sourav Ganguly trust his eye and his natural game to see him through. Ganguly came out of a bad phase by becoming more Ganguly-like, putting his faith in his strengths on the off side. Dravid has made so many tiny changes to his game over the years, working each out beforehand in his mind, that there is no single Dravid-like batsmanship.

It is an existential dilemma: which Dravid should he choose to throw all his energies into at this stage? The debutant who was considered not good enough for the one-day game? The fluent striker who tended to hit straight to the fielder in his early series? The batsman who clinically took Allan Donald apart in South Africa? The player who finished with the most runs in a World Cup? Around the turn of the century, Dravid achieved the great synthesis, becoming an all-round batsman indispensable in either form of the game. Now he is no longer required for the shorter version. And there haven’t been enough runs in Tests to make him an automatic choice.

Dravid has two Ranji Trophy games before the first Test on December 11. Karnataka play Andhra on November 16 and Baroda a week later. Dravid’s confidence right now is so low that he has virtually cut out shots square of the wicket. When you see him square-cut the fast bowler to the boundary you will know that he has come to terms with the devils in his mind.

In Bangalore and in Mohali he batted long enough for his 51 and 39 to indicate the problem was not in his feet but in his head. Sunil Gavaskar once went through a series in Australia getting caught behind in identical fashion. It has happened to Greg Chappell, and if you go back, even the great Wally Hammond has struggled. But these have usually lasted one series. Dravid’s struggle has gone on for a couple of seasons now, and he has been treated with kid gloves in that period.

This is partly because either the rest of the batting has been in the same boat (as in Sri Lanka) or it has been doing exceptionally well (as in the recent series against Australia). The pressure on Dravid therefore has been mainly from himself. Ganguly, who made his Test debut alongside him in 1996, has retired in style. Karnataka mate Anil Kumble was carried off the field in his last Test. Dravid would like to go out in triumph, but self-doubt is a cancer that can eat through a sportsman’s mind.

Should he bargain with the selectors and promise to leave at the end of the England series in return for a guaranteed place in the team to sort himself out? That would be un-Dravidlike. And there are two important away series to follow. In Pakistan (or the UAE, if that falls through, for security reasons) and then in New Zealand. No Indian has a better record outside the country. Dravid is most at home away from home.