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AHMEDABAD, India, Oct 27 - Indian selectors have
dropped experienced batsman Rahul Dravid for the first two
one-day internationals against Pakistan next month.
Dravid, 34, averages less than 10 in his last 10 one-day
matches and was dropped for the final one-dayer against
Australia earlier this month.
"We wanted to give him a break for a while," chief selector
Dilip Vengsarkar told a news conference on Saturday.
"He is a great player. He will be back very soon."
Pakistan will play five one-day internationals and three
tests in India from Nov. 5.
Explosive opener Virender Sehwag, dropped for the England
tour due to poor form, regained his place.
"He's back in form," Vengsarkar said of Sehwag, who was part
of the team that won the Twenty20 World Cup in South Africa.
Dravid, one of seven batsmen in the world to score over
10,000 one-day runs, gave up the captaincy last month after the
England tour.
He looked out of sorts in the one-day series against
Australia, scoring just 51 in five completed innings. The
visitors won the seven-match series 4-2 after the opening game
was washed out.
"If they need him, he'll be there for the next few games,"
Vengsarkar said of Dravid, dropped from the one-day team for
only the second time in his career.
"Fitness and fielding are very important. We have given him
a break."
Squad: Mahendra Singh Dhoni (captain), Yuvraj Singh, Saurav
Ganguly, Sachin Tendulkar, Gautam Gambhir, Virender Sehwag,
Robin Uthappa, Irfan Pathan, Rudra Pratap Singh, Rohit Sharma,
Murali Kartik, Zaheer Khan, Shanthakumaran Sreesanth, Harbhajan
Singh, Praveen Kumar.