‘Would’ve cracked T20 if I was 21′
5/23/2008 11:09:33 AM
Is Twenty20 a young man’s game? The answer to that was provided by none other than Bangalore Royal Challengers’ skipper Rahul Dravid on Thursday (May 23).
The former India captain has said, “T20 is a bit of a hit-and-miss game… A good player is a good player - you get a bit of experience - and it’s just a mind thing, really. I have not played a lot of Twenty20, and I am sure the more I play, the better I am going to get at it. It’s just that it has probably come at very late stage for me, if I was 21-22, I would have cracked this thing without a doubt.”
This is the first time one of India’s ‘Big Three’ - Sachin, Sourav and Rahul - has admitted that age is a factor when it comes to the shortest version of the game.
Dravid, Tendulkar and Ganguly had opted to stay out of the Indian squad for the T20 World Cup in South Africa which India went on to win.
While on one hand, Dravid made it clear that it doesn’t take too much to master the format, the technician also gave the impression that probably he was tired of re-inventing himself.
The IPL tournament has been a mixed bag for the plus 30s - incidentally Rahul Dravid has been amongst the bigger run getters for Bangalore scoring 329 runs.
So perhaps Dravid is being a bit too harsh on himself by hoping that he was younger!
It’s the same story for Hyderabad’s superstar Adam Gilchrist, whose slam-bang approach at the top for the Deccan team has seen him amass 335 runs at an average of over 30 runs (33.50).
Sanath Jayasuriya at 38 years has found his form a bit late in the tournament, but the Matara Mauler shows the young kids just how to hit the sixers, hitting 356 runs at an average close to 40 (39.55).
Sachin Tendulkar has not played too many games for Mumbai, but a score of 65 against Mohali means the Bombay Bomber is on his way to prime form with an average of 25.
But the story of the tournament has been Shane Warne, who is now the top wicket taker in the IPL with 14 wickets in his bag (scoring 20.28 runs on average)
Sri Lankan Mahela Jaywardene and Pakistan’s Shahid Afridi looked clearly unconvinced with Dravid’s argument for low performance, when TIMES NOW’s Afreen Kidwai quizzed them.
“If you go and tell that to Sanath Jayasuriya I think he will say that is not the case. I think it’s all about adapting to the format and trying to be a bit more innovative and enjoying yourself,” said Jayawardene, while Afridi pointed to Jayasuriya’s age. “What Mahela says is right, age does not matter - Sanath is 38 now, and he is doing very well,” he said.
Howver earlier TIMES NOW spoke to cricket expert Charu Sharma on the age factor playing its role on the IPL performance, and Sharma said it was not so much the number of years as getting into a rut.
“The truth, is ‘age’ is not an inanimate figure. It not about being 30 or 38. What it does indicate is that you are more set in your ways which have been developed because of a need for the job that one individually performs. If Rahul over the years has performed a job where he has eschewed all risk, where he has been far more careful, where he has been aware that getting out serves no purpose, he’s in a more classic mold, then for a batsman such as Rahul it might take just a little longer to adjust to the T20 demands - where you just have to essentially take a risk virtually off every ball,” said Sharma.
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Tags: DLF Cup IPL indian premier league rahul dravid bcci icc cricket player india ex captain jammy TIMES NOW report
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