What are your objective views on Rahul Dravid opening the Indian innings in the Test series in spite of the presence of two specialist openers in Gautam Gambhir and Wasim Jaffer in the squad?
Doesn’t this discourage them, directly or indirectly? I saw nothing wrong in Rahul Dravid opening the innings. Don’t forget he did the job to perfection and scored two Test centuries. Why don’t you appreciate that? We had discussed with the team management and agreed on the captain going in with Virender Sehwag. The strategy worked well, didn’t it? Of course, we the selectors don’t say he is a regular opener now. But definitely we’ve thought on the issue. Irfan Pathan, whom you have seen since he was a kid, has been progressing by leaps and bounds. Do you think he has fulfilled to the full his early promise? Very much. Not just Irfan Pathan but most of the young players in the side have been doing pretty well. Look at the way Mahendra Singh Dhoni has been performing. Ajit Agarkar has come back strongly. Wasim Jaffer has got back into the team. Suresh Raina is there. Mohammad Kaif is there. Yuvraj Singh has been scoring plenty of runs. So it’s really a good, interesting sign for Indian
