Rahul Dravid: Cracks in The Wall?

Sourav Ganguly's exclusion from the Rest of India squad for the forthcoming Irani Trophy is seen by many as an unfair move by the selectors.

The Fab Four -- Ganguly, Sachin Tendulkar, Rahul Dravid and VVS Laxman -- have all struggled at various times with form and fitness in the last year or so.

Thus, the question: who after Ganguly?

Ganguly best, but no place in Rest

Ace statistician Rajneesh Gupta presents a statistical analysis of Dravid's performances in the last few years. And, not surprising, it has dipped at an alarming rate in the last couple of years.

In his debut year, 1996, Dravid, also known as the 'The Wall', averaged just below 40 but thereafter piled up tons of runs and then never averaged less than 45 per year till 2006.

However, the last two calendar years were been pretty ordinary for Dravid as the following table suggests:

Dravid's performance in Test cricket (in each calendar year)

Year	Mts	Inns	NO	Runs	Avg	HS	100s	50s	0s
1996	7	12	1	436	39.64	95	0	3	0
1997	12	18	2	984	61.50	148	1	9	0
1998	5	9	0	413	45.89	118	1	3	1
1999	10	19	1	865	48.06	190	4	1	0
2000	6	11	3	624	78.00	200*	2	1	1
2001	13	23	3	935	46.75	180	1	6	0
2002	16	26	3	1357	59.00	217	5	5	0
2003	5	10	2	803	100.38	233	2	3	0
2004	12	18	3	946	63.07	270	2	4	3
2005	7	10	0	617	61.70	135	2	4	0
2006	12	22	4	1095	60.83	146	3	7	0
2007	10	19	2	606	35.65	129	1	3	0
2008	9	17	2	542	36.13	111	1	3	0
TOTAL	124	214	26	10223	54.38	270	25	52	5

Dravid got the Test captaincy on full-time basis in December 2005 (though he had captained India on five occasions before, all his assignments were as a stop-gap arrangement in absence of regular captain Sourav Ganguly).

Before Dravid was handed the captaincy, he was averaging an impressive 58. The additional burden did not affect him that much and he continued to average more than 50.

But, surprisingly, ever since Dravid has relinquished Test captaincy in a controversial manner in 2007, his performance has gone from bad to worse. The table below shows that his average has dipped to 34, quite ordinary going by Dravid's high standard over the years.

	Mts	Inns	NO	Runs	Avg	HS	100s	50s	0s
Before becoming full-time captain	91	153	18	7871	58.30	270	20	38	5
During full-time captaincy stint	20	36	5	1598	51.55	146	4	10	0
Since relinquishing captaincy	13	25	3	754	34.27	111	1	4	0

If Dravid has found a place in the Irani Trophy squad, it could well be because of his decent performances against Australia. Surprisingly, his performances against Australia in Australia is better than that in India.