Bangalore, October 17: Anil Kumble was surprised at the exclusion of Rahul Dravid from the ODI squad despite his resonable performance in the CHampions Trophy.
Speaking to PA Sports, Kumble said, “I don’t know why they didn’t continue with him. It’s a call that the selectors made. I don’t think someone who has played that long, of that stature, should have been dropped in that way after having performed in the Champions Trophy.”
“I certainly would have wanted him to continue but probably the selectors thought that he came as a replacement for Virender Sehwag and Sehwag was fit so he had to go, maybe that was the reason,” Kumble added.
India had an early ouster in two ICC tournaments this year. The team failed to come good during the T20 World Cup as well as the Champions Trophy. However, Kumble felt that the injuries to the key players during that time was the reason for the poor show.
“People are reading too much into a couple of tournaments. Twenty20 is a format where you can’t really say who’s going to win. Nobody ever thought that Pakistan would win, I don’t think anybody gave them a chance,” Kumble said.
“In terms of the Champions Trophy, it was disappointing that India didn’t qualify [for the semi-finals] but if you look at the format, one loss in the opening game and you can’t really recover. It’s not that India has done poorly in the last two years.”
Kumble said that India had every chance of making it to the top position in the next couple of years.
“It’s going to be an interesting couple of years, I don’t think one team will dominate like Australia did for 10 years but I see India being in the top one or two slots.”
—–Agencies