Bat and ball / Andrew Hughes / 03 March 2008 /

Leather on willow fanatic Andrew Hughes wonders whether India's recent limited-overs successes mean we'll never see Dravid and Ganguly turn out for India in the shorter versions of the game again

India's selectors have all the trappings of authority but in reality are at the mercy of the tide of public opinion. Either they go with it and pretend that was the direction they were heading in anyway or stand in its way and take the consequences. By and large, they have tended to do the former. The current head of selectors, Dilip Vengsarkar, began his tenure by reversing the push towards youth, bringing back Ganguly and Sehwag to the one-day side. Then in September, some of the seniors opted to miss the Twenty20 World Championships. A young Indian team won the tournament and suddenly the media tide turned. Bold youth was in; wisdom and experience were out.

But in the process, two of India's greatest cricketers, Rahul Dravid and Sourav Ganguly have found themselves washed up in limited overs cricket. Neither was selected for the Commonwealth Bank Series and it is long odds-on that either will appear in the shorter formats again.

Naturally the issue of when the Tendulkar generation will step aside has been a matter of debate for a while. But neither had indicated that they were about to retire from limited overs cricket and their summary axing is harsh. Dravid fell victim to the cult of youth back in October when he was dropped for only the second time in his international career against Australia. Having only retired from the captaincy in the summer, it was a rapid fall from prominence. Ganguly's omission from the Commonwealth Bank squad was more of a surprise. He had been asked whether he wanted to carry on and had indicated he would continue until September 2008 at the very least. Now it seems he will be lucky to play another one day international.

Of course, limited overs cricket is where veterans usually first being to feel the creeping chill of age. Whilst younger rivals fling themselves around and get their pyjamas muddy, the older, slower fielders stand out like sore thumbs. Neither Dravid nor Ganguly are panthers in the field and unfortunately for both of them, the fashion for dashing fielding occurred at precisely the same time as their batting form slumped. Though their overall one-day averages have remained impressive, the latter part of 2007 was poor for both. Ganguly managed a one-day average of 25.66 in his last ten matches, compared to 44.28 over the last two years, whereas Dravid endured a nightmare run in the ten matches prior to his dropping, averaging a meagre 8.88.

Perhaps most terminal of all for their future prospects is that India have done rather well without them. And whilst no one can fully replace their accumulated wisdom and class, there are several stroke players, such as Uthappa, Sharma and Ghambir who can follow in Ganguly's belligerent footsteps, whilst captain Dhoni is doing his best to play a more restrained and Dravid-like game. And his young side stand on the brink of a remarkable victory over the Aussies, having won the first final of three at the weekend.

Australia's lacklustre showing is strange, given that this is the last ever staging of a famous tournament that started out as the World Series and has become an institution down under. But their batting has lacked application at crucial times. A prime example was the way that top scorer Matthew Hayden holed out to Harbajhan in the first final, having just watched Andrew Symonds do the same thing.

Time and again in this tournament, it has been the bowlers who have bailed them out. It is likely that Messrs Lee, Bracken and Johnson will have a juicy green wicket and helpful overcast conditions in Brisbane for Tuesday's second final. The problem is that with Ishant Sharma, Pathan and Kumar, India are just as likely to be able to exploit them. India's batting line-up is packed with powerful stroke players and their fielding has, if anything, outdone the Aussies in this tournament so far. Which makes it all the more surprising that the current market has Australia at [1.41] and India [3.35] At those odds, it will be very tempting to back India to take an insurmountable 2-0 series win.

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