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ADELAIDE: India rubbished on Saturday “incorrect” and “baseless” reports of Rahul Dravid's imminent retirement from international cricket after the 4-0 series whitewash in Australia.
Reports have swirled in the Indian media of Dravid, Test cricket's second all-time leading runscorer, telling some of his teammates that he intended to quit.
The celebrated 39-year-old has had a wretched series, scoring just 194 runs at 24.25.
Team spokesman G.S. Walia read out a statement at the start of stand-in captain Virender Sehwag's post-match press conference after losing the fourth Adelaide Test, and refused to take questions.
“The team takes note of the stories in the media suggesting the imminent retirement of a member of the India team,” his statement said, referring to Dravid.
“We would like to clarify that situation by stating categorically that these are not correct and are baseless. There will be no further questions on this.”
Sehwag, another of the senior batting flops in the Australian series with 198 runs at 24.75, said there was no need for any of India's decorated but ageing batsmen to retire.
“I don't think there is a need for retirement of any player in this team and they will take their call when they're needed and when they think their time is up,” he said.
Dravid, nicknamed “The Wall” for his technical defence, has amassed 13,288 Test runs. Only Sachin Tendulkar has more with 15,470 runs.
V.V.S. Laxman, 37, is another senior player facing speculation he could quit after a similarly miserable time Down Under.
Laxman finished with 155 runs at 19.37.
