Dravid has a good feel for captaincy

In the end it could well be his casual approach in his prime to skills other than batting that proves his undoing, writes Ian Chappell.

In Australian cricket it is accepted wisdom that you don't retain a former captain once he has been demoted from the leadership role. Both Mark Taylor and Steve Waugh were immediately dropped from the one-day side once they were stripped of the captaincy and following Bill Lawry's sacking it was the reason given for not selecting him in the side and I led my country to England in 1972.

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Other countries aren't so quick to pull the trigger on former captains and in India's current situation the leadership status of Rahul Dravid and Sourav Ganguly is far from decided.

However, it's patently obvious that Dravid has a good feel for captaincy and if he maintains his present style he's more likely to err on the side of aggression than conservatism. I only say IF because tough losses like the one other night to Sri Lanka can make a captain start muttering to himself and questioning his decisions.

Dravid has no need to agonise over his captaincy decisions; he has done a good job in marshalling his forces and maintaining pressure on the opposition. However, he has now mentioned twice in his after match interviews that the fifth bowler has caused a few headaches. This is an area where he can help himself; if he's not happy with the make-up of his side he needs to let the selectors know and make a few suggestions how the problem can be solved.

India's faliure since enjoying the luxury of Kapil Dev has been the inability to discover a genuine all-rounder; the nearest they've come has been Sachin Tendulkar.

Apart from unearthing a bowling allrounder the other option is to play a wicketkeeper who can bat in the top six. This affords the selectors an opportunity to play five front line bowlers; a scenario that will become feasible if Mahendra Singh Dhoni proves capable with the gloves and Irfan Pathan continues to improve as a batsman.

This then leads to the question, if you do that who is the fifth bowler?

As India's most successful bowler Anil Kumble is the obvious choice and it would also provide a good balance of three pace men and two spinners. However, that means two from the trio of Mohammad Kaif, Suresh Raina and Yuvraj Singh would be omitted. To do so severely weakens the fielding line-up.

Also the addition of Kumble would extend to four the number of fielders that are a concern; the other three being Ganguly, Ashish Nehra and VVS Laxman. A spot can be found for Laxman because he has good hands and can consequently man a slip position or the critical spot at mid-wicket. The other three are slow and consequently hard to hide although Kumble's failings only stem from the aging process and not any lack of endeavour.

This then brings us back to the immediate past captain Ganguly and his position in the side. On batting ability he warrants a place in the team both on ability and experience, especially with Tendulkar missing through injury. He is also more indispensable whilst Sehwag is going through a lean patch but if the ultra-aggressive opener is firing and Tendulkar returns fully fit and with an appetite for runs the picture changes dramatically.

Ganguly hasn't been a good fielder for some years now and as he slows perceptibly his failings are becoming more and more ob vious. He has also neglected his bowling in recent times and whilst there appears to be an attempt to resurrect this skill it's difficult to achieve if the individual isn't fully committed to the task.

The experience of playing in a squad that is suddenly being infiltrated by younger players is often the catalyst for a senior player to start working harder at his game and maybe this will have a positive affect on Ganguly. So the path ahead appears clear cut for Ganguly. Unless he believes he can regain the captaincy, a difficult assignment given Dravid's aptitude for the job, he needs to dramatically improve his fielding and fitness and work hard on his bowling.

In the end it could well be his casual approach in his prime to skills other than batting that proves his undoing, rather than any clash of personality resulting from him being stripped of the captaincy.