Why Dravid won’t open and why Kaarthick will

Two ducks in-a-row, fingers beginning to turn towards Mumbai’s Wasim Jaffer, you might probably have expected Rahul Dravid to step out with Dinesh Kaarthick tomorrow.

Two ducks in-a-row, fingers beginning to turn towards Mumbai’s Wasim Jaffer, you might probably have expected Rahul Dravid to step out with Dinesh Kaarthick tomorrow. More so, because he can then squeeze in VVS Laxman in the middle.

But no, Dravid won’t take “that road” because that, he says, is not a long-term solution. And not with his average as opener around the 33-mark in 13 innings, well below his 59 at No 3 in 134 knocks.

Anyway, let’s get the skipper to do the explaining himself: “We have gone down that road and we have tried that a little bit in Pakistan, but we have seen that sometimes it doesn’t really work for the team. Having me in that number three position seems to work a lot better for the team, especially in some of the big games and away from home.

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“So yes, I could have done it (opened) here in this situation but would that have solved the problem for us for the England tour? Probably not. We would have probably gone back to me at three in England. So at least here, we can give someone else an opportunity to try and stake a claim. If he doesn’t, then somebody else will be given an opportunity.

“But you have got to give people a chance to stake their claim irrespective of what they are. If they are showing the willingness and the character to do it, if they are scoring runs, then why not?”

So will Kaarthick now stay as Test opener for a while?

“I try to keep saying this and I don’t know in what better way to say this. Dinesh Kaarthick is a wicketkeeper, but he is also playing as an opening batsman and he has been scoring runs. It does not matter what you are, whether you are a specialist, regular, official, unofficial, non-regular, at the end of the day it is the runs that matter.

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“In my 10 years of playing for India, the guy who has been the most consistent and who has got runs for us as opener with some consistency has been a middle order batsman who has been converted to an opener. So it really does not make a difference what you are. At the end of the day, if you have the technique, if you have the courage, if you have the guts, if you have the willingness and if you go out and score runs it just doesn’t matter whether you are official, unofficial, regular or non-regular.”

In my 10 years of playing for India, the guy who has been the most consistent and who has got runs for us as opener with some consistency has been a middle order batsman who has been converted to an opener -Rahul Dravid