Sourav Ganguly's exclusion from the Rest of India squad for the forthcoming Irani Trophy is seen by many as an unfair move by the selectors.
The Fab Four -- Ganguly, Sachin Tendulkar, Rahul Dravid and VVS Laxman -- have all struggled at various times with form and fitness in the last year or so.
Thus, the question: who after Ganguly?
Ace statistician Rajneesh Gupta presents a statistical analysis of Dravid's performances in the last few years. And, not surprising, it has dipped at an alarming rate in the last couple of years.
In his debut year, 1996, Dravid, also known as the 'The Wall', averaged just below 40 but thereafter piled up tons of runs and then never averaged less than 45 per year till 2006.
However, the last two calendar years were been pretty ordinary for Dravid as the following table suggests:
Dravid's performance in Test cricket (in each calendar year)
| Year | Mts | Inns | NO | Runs | Avg | HS | 100s | 50s | 0s |
| 1996 | 7 | 12 | 1 | 436 | 39.64 | 95 | 0 | 3 | 0 |
| 1997 | 12 | 18 | 2 | 984 | 61.50 | 148 | 1 | 9 | 0 |
| 1998 | 5 | 9 | 0 | 413 | 45.89 | 118 | 1 | 3 | 1 |
| 1999 | 10 | 19 | 1 | 865 | 48.06 | 190 | 4 | 1 | 0 |
| 2000 | 6 | 11 | 3 | 624 | 78.00 | 200* | 2 | 1 | 1 |
| 2001 | 13 | 23 | 3 | 935 | 46.75 | 180 | 1 | 6 | 0 |
| 2002 | 16 | 26 | 3 | 1357 | 59.00 | 217 | 5 | 5 | 0 |
| 2003 | 5 | 10 | 2 | 803 | 100.38 | 233 | 2 | 3 | 0 |
| 2004 | 12 | 18 | 3 | 946 | 63.07 | 270 | 2 | 4 | 3 |
| 2005 | 7 | 10 | 0 | 617 | 61.70 | 135 | 2 | 4 | 0 |
| 2006 | 12 | 22 | 4 | 1095 | 60.83 | 146 | 3 | 7 | 0 |
| 2007 | 10 | 19 | 2 | 606 | 35.65 | 129 | 1 | 3 | 0 |
| 2008 | 9 | 17 | 2 | 542 | 36.13 | 111 | 1 | 3 | 0 |
| TOTAL | 124 | 214 | 26 | 10223 | 54.38 | 270 | 25 | 52 | 5 |
Dravid got the Test captaincy on full-time basis in December 2005 (though he had captained India on five occasions before, all his assignments were as a stop-gap arrangement in absence of regular captain Sourav Ganguly).
Before Dravid was handed the captaincy, he was averaging an impressive 58. The additional burden did not affect him that much and he continued to average more than 50.
But, surprisingly, ever since Dravid has relinquished Test captaincy in a controversial manner in 2007, his performance has gone from bad to worse. The table below shows that his average has dipped to 34, quite ordinary going by Dravid's high standard over the years.
| Mts | Inns | NO | Runs | Avg | HS | 100s | 50s | 0s | |
| Before becoming full-time captain | 91 | 153 | 18 | 7871 | 58.30 | 270 | 20 | 38 | 5 |
| During full-time captaincy stint | 20 | 36 | 5 | 1598 | 51.55 | 146 | 4 | 10 | 0 |
| Since relinquishing captaincy | 13 | 25 | 3 | 754 | 34.27 | 111 | 1 | 4 | 0 |
If Dravid has found a place in the Irani Trophy squad, it could well be because of his decent performances against Australia. Surprisingly, his performances against Australia in Australia is better than that in India.
| Mts | Inns | NO | Runs | Avg | HS | 100s | 50s | 0s | |
| v Australia in Australia | 11 | 22 | 4 | 949 | 52.72 | 233 | 1 | 5 | 1 |
| v Australia in India | 11 | 19 | 1 | 768 | 42.66 | 180 | 1 | 5 | 1 |
Note: All statistics are for India's matches only. The performance in the 'Super Test' between World XI and Australia have not been considered.
