The Wall calls it a day

During India's 2011tour of England, a fan held a poster— “Sachin is God of Cricket. Saurav is God of Off-side. Laxman is God of 4th Innings. But when the doors of these temples close, even they take shelter behind THE WALL.” On his debut at Lord's, Rahul Dravid missed a brilliant century by mere five runs. Cut to 2011, dogged by poor performance and critics asking him to retire, Dravid hit a determined century and engraved his name on the Honour's board.                                    

A supreme example of grit and endurance, Dravid has always been the silent warrior. A team man with no frills, he kept wicket and moved up or down the batting order depending on the needs of the situation. In an era where the world worships Sachin Tendulkar, Rahul Dravid has carved a niche for himself. As Sachin said —“There is, and will always be, only one Rahul Dravid.”          

Incomparable

The Indian team, Captain, Coach, fans ... everybody and everything changed but the Wall will be as strong as ever. We may enjoy a solid helicopter six from Dhoni but never will we get a chance to watch a solid defence. We may enjoy Sehwag's upar cut; but we cannot experience a stylish square cut anymore. There's no one who can take Rahul Dravid's place.We will miss you forever.

ANIRUDHAN CHANDRASEKARAN, SRM UNIVERSITY

Strongest pillar

His dedication, perseverance and unwillingness to accept defeat are what made him the Wall of Indian cricket. He has been the reason why many of us love cricket. I Just have two words for Rahul Dravid —“THANK YOU”

ANURAG DANGI, CHINMAYA VIDYALAYA

Unsung hero

Commitment , class and consistency are three words that define Rahul Dravid's career. Dravid's contribution to Indian cricket includes many intangible contributions. He has always gone that extra mile for the team, be it wicket keeping or being flexible with his batting position.  Dravid has pretty much been the unsung hero of Indian cricket since his Test debut at Lord's where his impressive 95 was overshadowed by fellow-debutant Ganguly's century. All good things come to an end but there are some things one wished would continue till eternity. I have got so used to watching Dravid coming in at No. 3 that knowing it's not going happen is difficult to accept. Dravid , thank you for glorious memories and for being a role model for the ages. You'll be missed.

Tendulkar has a long stint at the nets

The news from the Indian team hotel was anything but inspiring. The words ‘optional practice' were bandied around and as the scribes resigned themselves to a sluggish day here on Wednesday, a stir was in store with Sachin Tendulkar deciding to have a hit in the nets.

The man, who is feeling the weight of expectations ever since that hundred against South Africa at Nagpur during last March and has also struggled to impose his regal stature at the crease over the last few months, strode in with Yusuf Pathan and Rahul Sharma.

The team's coaching trio of Duncan Fletcher, Joe Dawes (bowling) and Trevor Penney (fielding) were also in attendance and soon Tendulkar buckled down for a long stint that lasted more than an hour.

The bowling group of Yusuf, Rahul, Dawes, Penney and video-analyst Dhananjay evoked varying responses from Tendulkar. The maestro fine-tuned his trickle towards third-man with mixed results against Yusuf and when he tried to defend, a delivery struck his bat and then bounced past the stumps triggering mirth in the off-spinner.

Rahul enjoyed no such luck as Tendulkar relished the extra bounce to sandpaper his cuts and lofted a few that threatened the parked vehicles in the Sher-e-Bangla National Stadium. In the adjacent net, Sri Lanka's Kumar Sangakkara essayed some aggressive shots and departed but Tendulkar kept batting though he took mini-breaks to chat with Fletcher.

Later, he watched Yusuf's hefty strikes and then enthusiastically bowled his leg-breaks to a perplexed Rahul. The tail-ender failed to read Tendulkar, miscued a few shots and the senior partner gleefully indicated that those strokes would be caught in the deep.

Rahul then swung his bat and missed and once was also castled while Tendulkar mixed it up, bowling the faster one and at times pausing a bit and imparting air. Finally Rahul managed to thump a few from the meat of his bat. At the end of the session, Tendulkar took him aside and discussed his stance.

Cricket's highest run-getter laughed, spoke a lot and displayed an ease that belied the anxieties of waiting for his elusive 100th international hundred for over a year.

India post facile win

Gautam Gambhir and Virat Kohli scored timely centuries to guide India to a 50-run win over Sri Lanka in their opening game at the Asia Cup in Dhaka on Tuesday. Photos: AP

The manual scoreboard at the Shere-e-Bangla National Stadium is not a crystal ball for gazing into the future but surely the men, who supervise it, do have a sense of evolving fortunes.

Ahead of Thursday's key Asia Cup game between Pakistan and Sri Lanka, the organisers placed the names of the respective playing XIs.

Obviously they believed in status quo and merely replicated the earlier teams that the rivals fielded over the last four days!

The Sri Lankan squad had no Angelo Mathews and Lasith Malinga was also absent from the ranks. One part of the scoreboard's team-prediction, if you could call that, came true when Mahela Jayawardene informed the media that Mathews was returning home after failing to recover from a calf-injury.

Malinga, though, is racing against time to get fit and trained here on Wednesday, starting with a slow run-up before increasing his pace towards the end of his 30-minute session. He also participated in fielding drills and batted against throw-downs but the last word on his match-fitness will be heard only when Jayawardene and Misbah-ul-Haq walk out for the toss.

Dampening factors

The absence of Mathews and the uncertainty surrounding Malinga are dampening factors within the Sri Lankan dressing room while the team has to defeat Pakistan to stay alive in the Asia Cup. History's long-arm holds several clues for revival as defying odds is nothing new for Sri Lanka.

Be it grounding Australia in the World Cup final at Lahore in 1996 or the recent narrow victory against Shane Watson's men at Melbourne, which helped it qualify for the Commonwealth Bank Series finals, Sri Lanka has been known to springing surprises.

On Tuesday, Sri Lanka was in the contest against India until Kumar Sangakkara chanced his arm against R. Ashwin in the batting Power Play.

A clutch of wickets fell and the earlier momentum gathered by Jayawardene was frittered away. Dinesh Chandimal and Lahiru Thirimanne, who added layers of respectability to their emerging reputations in Australia, played inexplicable shots and that effectively snuffed out the Sri Lankan challenge.

Need for consistency

The two, expected to shepherd Colombo's dreams, once the twilight beckons Jayawardene, Sangakkara and Tillakaratne Dilshan, need to remain consistent, else the same old story of excessive reliance on the top-order will be Sri Lanka's strength as well as weakness. To make it worse, the bowlers lost their angles against India and while the bouncer was conspicuous by its absence, an embarrassing number of full-tosses were peddled, though one of them snared a tepid Sachin Tendulkar!

Against Pakistan, Sri Lanka cannot afford to repeat the horrors and Jayawardene said as much in the pre-match briefing.

If Sri Lanka found itself in the wringer against defending champion India, Pakistan had it easy against Bangladesh as the host's susceptibility to choke while treading the victory path surfaced again in the inaugural game on Sunday.

Ineptitude

Chasing 262, Bangladesh wilted despite the flailing attempts of Tamim Iqbal and Shakib-Al-Hasan.

The host's batting ineptitude actually helped Pakistan temporarily forget its 36 for six collapse which negated the fine effort of openers Mohammad Hafeez and Nasir Jamshed.

Pakistan's spinners led by Saeed Ajmal and Shahid Afridi can cause a few hassles on this pitch, which tends to reward batsmen, who would need to settle down first before setting their sights on sixes unless you are in the zone like Jayawardene was against India.

After getting whipped by England in the United Arab Emirates, Pakistan's ODI reputation has sagged and the next few days are crucial for Misbah to strengthen his team's fortunes.

The last time, Pakistan and Sri Lanka clashed in the dry confines of UAE, Misbah's men made merry, winning the Tests 1-0 and the ODIs 4-1. The undercurrents from those November days and Sri Lanka's current context of being boxed into a corner, should impart an extra edge to Thursday's contest as the race for the finalist spots heats up in the tournament.