 | | PICTURE SPEAK | |  | OPENING UP: Indian skipper Rahul Dravid "I think the question of batting slots has become irrelevant-not so much in Tests but certainly in the one-day game."
RAHUL DRAVID, INDIAN CAPTAIN | | It's official and comes from one of the most studied batsmen in world cricket-batting slots are irrelevant. Indian captain Rahul Dravid believes that rather than arriving at a fixed order, his team is going to stick to the tactic of free-floating libero batsmen in the countdown to the 2007 World Cup. As his red-hot one-day side got ready to tangle with the West Indians, Dravid said, "I think the question of batting slot has become a little irrelevant-particularly in the one-day game. In Test matches, you would still use more specialists but in the one-day game, I see it as a more flexible option where people move in and out of positions." Speaking to India Today, the Indian skipper denied that the team management's "flexibility" policy had led to confusion up and down the order. The Indians have used several ODI batsmen "out of position" and after the floating batting order came into play, India has won 18 of its last 24 ODIs, including a world-record sequence of 16 successful chases. "I don't think it creates confusion-we're trying to get the best out of a player's talents and the boys revel in this. Unless you challenge yourself, you are never really going to grow as a cricketer and become a better person...." Dravid's most recent batting slot-that of opener in the one-day game in the absence of the injured Sachin Tendulkar-led to a few raised eyebrows, particularly as the 33-year-old right hander was considered somewhat unenamoured by the opening position. He denies the perception. "People have this impression that I never warmed to the (opener's) job and that's not true. I don't see any position as being cast-iron, set in stone. I like to challenge myself and see if I can bat in different positions. At the end of the day it's not what I want, it's about what's best for the team and how we can win games.... When I opened in Test matches, sometimes it worked and sometimes it didn't. You have to ask yourself if that is the best thing for the team at that point of time. That's always been the discussion, it's not about numbers." The prospect of Dravid as ODI opener is today not merely an exception, but an alternative, much like Irfan Pathan's batting at No. 3. "I've been opening in the one-day game and after five games, you look back and if it's actually helping the side perform better, it is something that we might persist with." The West Indies tour is being considered a trial run for the World Cup next year but Dravid wants to play down the hype and talk about the task at hand. "Our priority is to try and win this series, one-dayers and Tests. The World Cup is a long way away-if we do well, there will be some benefits for the World Cup six to eight months down the line, but I don't think we are going to be thinking about that now." The Test team's fortunes appear to be running diametrically opposite to the one-day squad, and Dravid said, "We want to do well in both forms of the game, we've had more success recently in the one-day game, had a couple of bad Test matches but you know that can happen. It's not because we have neglected our Test cricket." One of the few captains to be given an extended and secure tenure, Dravid has been named captain for the World Cup. He wears the job with a sense of gravitas and unsentimentality, almost at polar opposites to his predecessor Sourav Ganguly. His demeanour in the captian's role is a function of his personality and Dravid says, "One of the hardest jobs of captaincy is to take tough decisions about players. You still try and be one of the boys and that is important. Never lose the connection with the boys. I can't go around trying to be liked by everybody, what's most important is that I need to get the respect of everyone-and that's what I aim for."
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