Will open if team wants, says Dravid

Despite the fact that little-known left-arm paceman Allan Wise was able to quickly cream off three Indian batsmen, Dravid said he has no problem facing the new ball bowlers led by Brett Lee on the bouncy wickets. “If I am asked to open in the Test matches, I will be happy to do so,” said Dravid. Today he opened the innings with Wasim Jaffer.

“I am comfortable in any role that is given to me by the team management. I try and do the best I can, irrespective of where I bat,” said Dravid, who has opened the innings for India on several occasions.

“I just batted where the team management wanted me to,” said Dravid who, to put things in perspective, has made just 369 runs from eight games at 33.55 as an opener, including two centuries against Pakistan on flat decks.

As against this, he made in excess of 600 runs against Australia in four Tests, including a match-winning double century in Adelaide, when India last toured Down Under for the 2003-2004 series.

Dravid said India had a solid middle order which can pile up big scores if provided with good starts. “If they feel that the best chance for us to do well here in Australia is by me opening the batting, that is fine with me. We have a very strong middle-order, a constant middle-order for sometime now. But there are a lot of good youngsters coming in, and they can’t be ignored.

“It is critical to get off to good starts in Australia. If you can see off the early part without losing too many wickets, then you can make it count later on.”