Kumble questions Dravid's omission

Anil Kumble, the former India captain, has questioned the manner in which Rahul Dravid was dropped from the one-day squad, following his reasonable performance in the ICC Champions Trophy.

"I don't know why they didn't continue with him," Kumble was quoted as saying by PA Sports. "It's a call that the selectors made. I don't think someone who has played that long, of that stature, should have been dropped in that way after having performed in the Champions Trophy.

"I certainly would have wanted him to continue but probably the selectors thought that he came as a replacement for Virender Sehwag and Sehwag was fit so he had to go, maybe that was the reason."

Dravid was recalled to the one-day squad after two years in August to strengthen the middle order for the Compaq Cup tri-series in Sri Lanka and the Champions Trophy. Since his comeback, he has scored 14, 47, 39, 76 and 4 in five innings; the 39 came in a crucial 95-run opening stand in the Compaq Cup final, which India won. It was expected that Sehwag and Yuvraj Singh would come in for Dinesh Karthik and Virat Kohli, their original replacements, but the selectors showed faith in Kohli.

India's poor performances in the World Twenty20 and the Champions Trophy have generated debate about the depth in their batting and inconsistency in the bowling. However, Kumble felt it was too soon to talk about a decline, and that injuries to key players had hurt India in the ICC tournaments.

"People are reading too much into a couple of tournaments," Kumble said. "Twenty20 is a format where you can't really say who's going to win. Nobody ever thought that Pakistan would win, I don't think anybody gave them a chance.

"In terms of the Champions Trophy, it was disappointing that India didn't qualify [for the semi-finals] but if you look at the format, one loss in the opening game and you can't really recover. It's not that India has done poorly in the last two years."

Kumble was confident India would become one of the top two sides in the next couple of years. "It's going to be an interesting couple of years, I don't think one team will dominate like Australia did for 10 years but I see India being in the top one or two slots."