Has time come to drop Dravid and Gambhir for some time?

I am not sure about any of these positions, I rather think of Raina. He is a player who can play shots only on flat pitches, if there is anything wrong with the pitch, he can not play. As far as Gambhir is concerned, he is a class player, he has been out of the team because of injuries and he should certainly be given some time to come back, but Rahul Dravid is someone who should end his career by himself, instead of that, he is screwing up test matches like this. Pujara and Vijay both are better batsman as compared to Raina in Test format. Let's hope that Vijay or Pujara will get a chance for South African tour.

gambhir is young and he will surely get over this phase .well dravid is experienced and like kumble,if he feels he is not contributing ,he will quit.he is that kinda character.it would be shaming these legends if you threw them out unceremoniously. you seems to have forgotten someone in your list. dravid has scored around 312 runs with a half century and a century whereas another guy has scored just 202 runs with only one fifty in the last 3 series. guess who MSD partially blind when it comes to the captain?

Sorry to say you that I have a slight disagree with your statement that Gambhir and Dravid must be dropped.Both of them have proved themselves to be useful to the team under critical situation.The reason is that both Vijay and Pujara are new to the scenario and will find it hard to cop with the situation.Even though they had played some big innings in the domestic matches,may be even in the International matches,they are still not fully experienced and in my words they must be given more chances.But I am not saying that for giving them chances these players who are highly experienced must be dropped out.Both Dravid and Gambhir are known for their capability to bring up India under critical situations.

I think Dravid will retire in the near future anyway. In an year may be. Dropping him will not make him any better batsman than what he is now. He just needs the confidence that he still can play good enough if not his best. He is psychologically lacking that attitude. That is why he is struggling. Temporarily dropping doesn't apply to Dravid. If Dravid has been dropped now it is just like end of his career. It will be difficult for him to come back as it happened with ODI. So SA tour will be very crucial for Dravid. And as far as Gambhir, he is struggling with injuries. I don't know why he suffers from injuries so often. More than any other batsmen. It started especially after his successful run of solid knocks and winning ICC trophy etc. So if he is fit then he might get his form back any moment. But if he fails continuously in this NZL series then definitely he should be rested for a while and Vijay should be taken in. Vijay and Pujara are good enough and they will definitely get the chance for SA tour, I guess.

Hi Ram, Gautam Gambhir has been missing his good form because of his return from injuries.I think he needs some rest from international cricket.Gambhir has scored consecutive centuries so we cannot say that he is not good for opening position.Any player who comes out of injury will suffering for two or more months.After sometime they will be regaining their form.Vijay is a talented cricketer but Shewag likes opening the batting with Gambhir.If he misses Gambhir he might fed up.Dravid has been also scoring some runs in tests .But still he takes more time for settling in and scoring runs.This will prevent him a place in the WORLD CUP squad.Hope he gives up his character of taking more time at the crease for scoring runs

I agree with you , i think either Gambhir is not fully fit or he is short of match practice after injury , it would be good if he goes back to domestic cricket find his form and come back , there is nothing wrong in it, all great players have bad phase and Gambhir has long way to go .Its crucial for him to get back in form as good start is very necessary in tests, you get out early and middle order is exposed to new ball.For now Gambhir is really in poor form as his head is not balanced while playing the shots hence he doesnt know where his stumps are and end up losing his wicket.About Dravid i think opposition teams has found some loopholes in his batting , he being a legend all teams come up with strong strategy against him.Dravid is trying to play every ball even if its outside the off stump while the Dravide we know must judge the ball and leave it until bowler bowls an over pitched delivery or a short one, may be he is trying to play every ball as he got out in the past especially against Aussies on the ball coming into him.Whatever is the case Dravid and Kirsten knows their job very well they certainly will rectify the mistake soon.NZ series will be eye opener for team India and they need to pull up their socks before SA series , especially Dravid and Gambhir like you mentioned.If they play poorly in next match also , it would be better to give them rest for third test and send both of them back to play a domestic match before leaving for SA.These two will be the key players there.Also Raina needs to improve his game immensely otherwise it would be better if Vijay , Yuvi or Pujara take his place, or dare i say may be Virat Kohli as he is in form and plays short balls much better.