Dravid to keep wickets in first one-dayer

Rahul Dravid will don the wicketkeeper's gloves when India take the field in the first one-dayer against the West Indies. The master technician, despite all the runs that he scored in the Test series, does not command an automatic place in an Indian one-day line-up bristling with many stroke-players. Probably it was with this in mind that the Indian think-tank worked out the arrangement.

"Yes, at least in the first match he will be standing behind the stumps. We just want to see what he can do there," coach John Wright said.

The Indian skipper, Sourav Ganguly, claimed that he has already discussed the issue with his vice-captain. "I had talks with him and he said that he had no problem in keeping wickets," Ganguly said.

The main problem with playing Dravid as a specialist batsman is that India will then have to sacrifice one of four talented youngsters - Mohammad Kaif, Yuvraj Singh, Dinesh Mongia and Virender Sehwag. Besides being capable batsmen, the foursome are very good fielders and can chip in with two or three overs of bowling too. Not surprisingly, the think-tank would like to avoid axing them.

With this being the scenario, Dravid keeping wickets would offer the best way out of the situation. Yes, this would mean that Ajay Ratra would have to sit out, but the team-management feel that it is a necessary experiment ahead of the World Cup.

Another decision that has been made is to play Sachin Tendulkar at number three or four when India are chasing big scores. Indian coach John Wright explained the decision.

"We have been failing in our bid to chase big scores for some time now and we felt that it could be great to have a batsman like Sachin to finish the job at the death.

"At the moment, we have four openers in our team - Sourav, Sachin, Sehwag and Mongia. We have to reshuffle the order to see what the others are capable of. The World Cup is not far off. This is the right time to try and settle the order.

"We need an experienced player to see the team home in pressure situations and Sachin is definitely the best person to do so. But remember, this will only be in the case of chasing a big score. Otherwise, he will be batting as usual," Wright observed.

When Tendulkar came out to open the Indian innings for the first time in a one-dayer in New Zealand, the situation was a bit different. India needed a player, who could take advantage of the field restrictions in the first 15 overs, at the top of the order.

Now India have Ganguly, Sehwag and Mongia, who are all capable of executing this task. Tendulkar arriving to shepherd the Indian innings in the middle-overs after the initial blitzkrieg by the trio then seems the ideal solution.

The team under Sourav Ganguly had shown the courage to drop Kumble from a Test match. Now if they can successfully coax Dravid to keep wickets and Tendulkar to bat in the middle-order when India are chasing big totals, they would definitely have taken yet another step in the right direction in the shorter version of the game.