Rahul Dravid - missing a brick in the wall?

Rahul Dravid, who is solid in defence, has not been usual self on the current down under

“The Wall” is suddenly looking shaky in the ongoing test series and experts are at a loss to explain what Rahul Dravid is doing wrong to get out repeatedly. Dravid is the second Indian having the record of highest test run getter after the legend Sachin himself. He has been bowled in the last six of his nine tests innings, discounting Peter Siddle‘s no-ball at the MCG, making it a total of 13 times in the last 12 months. Former Australian skipper Ian Chappell has said, “Dravid is too worried that he hasn’t covered the out-swing of a delivery enough and hence is tending to play outside the line of a delivery”.

His two dismissals in SCG to Hilfenhaus is evident to support this theory. On both occasions, he played outside the line of the delivery and left a gap between bat and pad. Hilfenhaus who generally bowls away swing, rare to see his action permits an incoming delivery. Laxman’s dismissal in the 2nd innings was a away swing, as Laxman expected the ball to come in.

Former Indian skipper Sourav Ganguly is equally bewildered and wonders if Dravid is not going forward enough and with his bat always in front of his pads, it is leaving a big gap for the ball to breach his defence. He is the man who spends more time at the wicket than anyone in the history of the game. “He has 12,752 runs on the cards in 156 test matches”.

Dravid however, is not alarmed at the trend. “I feel I have been batting well. Hopefully in the next couple of tests, I will be able to convert one of these starts. Sometimes you can’t read too much into things. To be fair there have been couple of good balls. It’s not like I have got out, you know, inner-edging”. said Dravid.

With already two matches into the Down-under test series, Dravid’s off-form has been concerning not only to himself but also to all the Indians. Whether or not, we will see a different Dravid in the remaining two matches, only time can tell.