Not so Special, Dravid

A smiling Rohit knew he had nothing to lose. His team was about to accomplish what deemed impossible. Umpires were surrounded by Rajasthan Royals players who seemed unaware of equation which itself was surprising considering their coach is the very intelligent Rahul Dravid. However Dravid and co was not alone- there seemed to be a cloud all over with Ravi Shastri wondering aloud if a wide can save Royals. Finally when the Royals were cleared of their ignorance, Tare came with a clear message. He knew what to do. There was not much fuss. There was no need to fuss with him knowing, if Royals continue bowling filth like they have been doing that night, he had the game in his pocket. And Faulkner’s full toss onto the leg stump looked like a symbol of love and Tare gleefully accepted it tonking over square leg.

With Sachin happily giving away free hugs, Dravid did an odd thing. In fact it was very odd considering it was Dravid. He threw his cap away and he took it back. Now imagine if Virat had done this. “Nah mate. He isn’t mature enough. This is not acceptable for a cricketer” Or had Raina/Rohit done this they would have got cricketing lessons along with beahvioural lessons from media. Harsha would have been disappointed and tweeted (in small case. He is sick of Caps Lock for some reason) with words such as cricketers, role models blah blah and RTed his junior who would have tweeted the same, albeit in different words. But then it was Dravid. Believed to be overshadowed, not understanding that anyone would have been overshadowed by a cricketer of that calibre.

There was sympathy for the great man which was very stupid and evident in social media. Some were like Dravid overshadowed again! I was like What? WTF? How on earth? And then a few said Dravid didn’t deserve this. That made me giggle. If there is anyone who deserved this more, that is Dravid.

An usual disclaimer to start with. Rahul Dravid was a brilliant player and he will always be mentioned as one of the finest of all times there with Sachin, Ricky, Kallis – to name a few from his generation.  The Indian Team under Dravid did considerably well and he is known to be one of the poignant thinkers of the game and he proved his worth leading the 'underrated' Royals to unmatchable heights. Guess what? That begs to wonder what really happened in this IPL season.

When RR was all set for a playoff spot, what went wrong? Where the downfall started?  It all started with the Mumbai game at Motera. The team management had decided not to play Rahane, Tambe and Smith. Have you seen anyone dropping team’s top three players for three rookies? No I haven’t. That was weird. Considering what happened at Wankhade, it seems Royals wanted to avoid a playoff spot at any cost for Mumbai Indians. No, really. That is the best explanation I could manage.

As predictably Rahane and Tambe was back in the eleven for the next game but the momentum was then injected into Mumbai Indians at the cost of their own team's fortunes. Then again Smith wasn't back but you really cant question with Brad Hodge taking his place.  

By that time Smith wouldn’t have imagined he won’t get another game. Nor he would have known why he had to bat below Binny in all but one game he played. Let’s talk about Binny. The guy who was retained before auction and the guy who managed to retain his place in the playing eleven even averaging a mere 12.3 at a strike rate of 101.65.  Maybe he would have wondered too- why he wasn’t dropped by the team management which was known to show no bias. But why did he get that long a rope? Only god knows. Or maybe Dravid knows.

To add a few more, the constant shuffling of batting order especially openers- even after they found the right pair in Karun and Rahane- and not to forget Bhatia's promotion or the likes of  Ankit Sharma, Tewatia batting a position above Hodge. It was all mess. 

You could say the experimentation was one notch too high and Binny was backed more than what he deserved and finally you could only pity the players who were not aware/not sure of the equation prompting a big conference with umpires right in the middle of the match.

By the way, Good luck for the next season. Hope Smith plays and bats ahead of Binny at least in the next season. XD. 

(Disclaimer: I love Dravid as much you do, Just in case.....)