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The national selectors on Sunday sprung a major surprise by dropping former captain Rahul Dravid and recalling Virender Sehwag in the 15-member Indian one-day squad for the first two matches of the upcoming cricket series against arch-rivals Pakistan.

The 34-year-old Dravid, who struggled for runs right through the recent ODI series against Australia, was left out of the team which has Uttar Pradesh paceman Praveen Kumar as the lone new face.
Left-handed opener Gautam Gambhir, who missed the last four matches in the series against Australia because of an injury, expectedly made a comeback in place of S Badrinath in the team announced by BCCI Secretary Niranjan Shah after a meeting of the selection committee here.

Apart from Dravid's exclusion, Sehwag's recall was also a surprise as the Delhi batsman has not scored too many runs to justify his place in the team.

Chief Selector Dilip Vengsarkar said Dravid was being given a break and should be back in the team soon. "We haven't spoken to him yet. We wanted to give him a break for a while. He is a great player and he will be back soon," Vengsarkar told reporters after the meeting which lasted close to two hours.

Vengsarkar also said the selection committee had consulted captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni over telephone before finalising the squad for the first two matches to be held in Guwahati (Nov 5) and Mohali (Nov 8).



The unceremonious ouster of former captain Rahul Dravid from India's one-day team continued to evoke sharp criticism with two former players slamming Chief Selector Dilip Vengsarkar and demanding BCCI Chief Sharad Pawar's intervention into the matter.

Sandeep Patil and Sanjay Manjrekar, the two former cricketers, said Dravid got a raw deal from the selectors who showed scant respect for his contribution to the game.

"I had earlier supported the idea that Sharad Pawar, as BCCI president, should not interfere in selection matters. I would revise my decision now and recall how once NKP Salve, as then BCCI president, had intervened and influenced the selectors to include Sunil Gavaskar after he had been dropped," Patil said.

Patil said the latest development was perhaps linked with why Dravid relinquished the captaincy without giving any reasons after a successful England tour and looked out of sorts during the recent ODI series against Australia.

"The National selectors have played a 'planned game'. The manner in which they have dumped a devoted cricketer like Rahul Dravid only reflects the degeneration that has come to dominate Indian cricket on and off the field," Patil said.

"I feel very sad at the treatment given to Rahul. Captain of the team a few months ago, he relinquished the responsibility for reasons he has not disclosed but it is not difficult to understand the game now," he was quoted as saying by 'cricketnext'. ...

Some comments....

Dravid has been shunted out while for Bengali Babu Ganguly too strong Left lobby is there and for Maharastian Sachin powerful Pawar is there . Congress interests are looked after Rajiv Shukla in BCCI so it has now become political Cricket body.

The National selectors have played a 'planned game'. The manner in which they have dumped a devoted cricketer like Rahul Dravid only reflects the degeneration that has come to dominate Indian cricket on and off the field.


(source)

adding one more political angle to this:
And Right now Karnataka govt is down.........no one to defend him !rather polticans r busy saving thier MLAs from shifting parties etc !
( BTY regional poltics itself is a big topic. check the no of players from each zone when the BCCI president is from other zones ! )


If iam not wrong He was captian of ONE day team just before this series.??? how could they do this just one the basis of few One days ???

One more intersting thing is wat was the performance young blood doing in One dayers. The top performers were again Sachin and Saurav. !


Regards

Sonu

He is just out of form.He needs just one good series to regain his lost charm.

He is still THE WALL