Rohit Sharma's ouster from the team, admittedly due to a lack of performance, could hardly have led to a more unexpected choice for the upcoming series against Sri Lanka and South Africa.

After the troubles of the Indian ODI team against fast bowlers in the West Indies -- a series India won, by the way -- led the selectors to conclude that Rahul Dravid, a man who has not been in the ODI team for two years and is on the cusp of retirement, is best fit to teach the players about how to face short-pitched deliveries.

Instead of selecting someone like Virat Kohli, who shone in Australia as captain of an emerging India team recently, the selectors decided to go with a near-retired player who played poorly in ODIs in the last year of his ODI career, has not played domestic cricket for a couple of years, and has only the second season of IPL to his credit in a shorter format.

The world's two top-ranked batsmen are Mahendra Dhoni and Yuvraj Singh, so the ODI team cannot be considered lacking in top-notch batting experience. They have not lost many ODI series of late, so panic can't be at issue.

The move to select Dravid at the expense of rising stars is an eccentric one by the eccentric Srikkanth, who has vocally defended the move by his committee. India may well continue to win, but such a selection tactic cannot help and must be condemned.

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