Dileep Premachandran has written on the Guardian sport website that India’s decision to drop Ganguly and Dravid for the One Day side is, to say the least, a bit premature. Personally, I think that it’s time to move on.
Yes, as Dileep points out, the young generation of batsmen aren’t quite there yet. Also, it’s true that the ‘transition’ hasn’t been handled very well by the men in charge of Indian cricket (what has been handled well by the BCCI?). But One Day International cricket is hardly renowned for its sentimentality. Things have changed almost beyond recognition in the limited-overs form of the game, not least due to Twenty20 (which India’s young team are quite good at, I seem to recall), and ‘experience’ is now becoming less valuable in comparison to the ability to field aggressively, not something either Dravid or Ganguly are famous for.
In terms of the batting lineup, then there will of course be a cost involved. But if England had not have taken the decision to drop Graham Thorpe (who had averaged over 50 in the run of Test success following Michael Vaughan’s installation as captain) in 2005, then a certain Mr. Pietersen might not have featured in a certain couple of games against Australia that summer.
I’m not suggesting that India’s new One-Day side will now immediately discover a talent as explosive as KP, but if you want to make an omelette, a few of the Lion Standard might get broken.
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[...] 8, 2008 by A P Webster Way back in January, I wrote about whether it was time for Dravid and Ganguly to be dropped from the One Day [...]