MOHALI, Dec 17: Struggling Rahul Dravid begins the second Test against England here from Friday knowing he needs to come good not only for the team’s sake, but also his own.

The middle-order batsman, nicknamed the “Wall” due to his immaculate defence that bowlers around the world found hard to breach, is in the midst of the worst slump in his 12-year career.

Dravid has scored just 342 runs in his last 10 Tests, including meagre contributions of three and four in the first Test in Chennai which India won by six wickets on Sunday.

Dravid, who turns 36 next month, had not averaged less than 40 in a 10-Test span since his debut against England at Lord’s in 1996.

But in the last 10 matches, his average has fallen to an alarming 19, leading to calls by former players and fans for Dravid either to quit, or take a break from the game.

The selectors have, however, opted to keep faith in Dravid, one of only four batsmen after Sachin Tendulkar, Brian Lara and Ricky Ponting to score 10,000 runs in both Test and one-day cricket.

Dravid is not only almost certain to play the second Test here, but Indian cricket chiefs this week awarded him a central contract in the ‘A’ category reserved for only the top nine players.

Former India captain Dilip Vengsarkar, who was chairman of selectors until recently, said Dravid must consider a break from Tests and play domestic cricket to regain form.

“Rahul is a great batsman but his bad phase has gone on for a long time now,” said Vengsarkar, himself a top-class batsman of the 1980s. “I think he needs a break. He can play a few first class games, recapture his form and then return to the side. He has played for so long, he will know when to quit.”

With India unlikely to tour Pakistan next month due to political tensions between the two nations following the Mumbai attacks, Dravid will have a break until the New Zealand tour in March and April.

With former captains Anil Kumble and Saurav Ganguly having retired after the recent home series against Australia, it is left to Dravid, Sachin Tendulkar and Vangipurappu Laxman to fly the flag for the set of elite Indian veterans labelled the “fab five”.

Tendulkar, 35, the world’s most successful Test and one-day batsman, showed during the Chennai Test he was still in prime form with a match-winning 41st century as India pulled off the fourth-highest run chase in history.

Dravid’s leg-before against spinner Graeme Swann and then a tentative edge off Andrew Flintoff in the same match were described as “examples of a muddled mind caught in indecision” by the Indian Express

newspaper.—AFP