Dravid will retire after England ODI

Rahul Dravid has announced his
retirement from international
limited-overs cricket following
the England series. In his
announcement, which came hours
after he was handed a shock recall to the one-day side for
that tour, he said he wanted to
retire from the shorter forms
and concentrate on Test cricket. Dravid, 38, is the seventh
highest run-getter in ODIs, with
10,765 runs in 339 matches,
averaging just under 40. He
hasn't been a regular in the
Indian one-day side since late 2007 - a couple of months after
he reached his career-high ICC
ranking of No. 5 - though he
made a brief comeback during
the 2009 Champions Trophy in
South Africa. He admitted he hadn't expected a recall for the
upcoming England series. "Since I had not been picked for
one-day cricket for the last two
years, I was obviously a little
surprised," he said after India's
tour match against
Northamptonshire. "To be honest, because I had not been
picked, I had not informed the
selectors or the board of my
desire to solely focus on Test
cricket. "At the end of this one-day
series, I would like to announce
my retirement from one-day and
Twenty20 cricket and
concentrate only on Test cricket.
I am committed, as always to give my best to India in this one-
day series and obviously the
Test series that follows. "In the short term I am
committed because now I have
been picked for the series, but
in the long term I think it is best
for me and Indian cricket that I
focus on Test cricket." Dravid recently became the
second highest run-getter in
Tests, and has had a resurgence
in form over the past couple of
months, scoring three centuries
in five Tests to end a relatively lean run in the last few years. When he started his
international career in 1996, he
was seen as a batsman more
suited to the longer form but he
soon adapted to the challenges
of one-day cricket. Among the highlights of his ODI career was
the 1999 World Cup, where he
was the top scorer and put on
the then largest partnership in a
one-dayer, 318 with Sourav
Ganguly. Six months later he bettered that with a 331-run
stand with Sachin Tendulkar that
is still the biggest in the format. As in his Test career, he
routinely fitted into roles the
team needed him to, notably in
the 2003 World Cup, where in
order to accommodate an extra
batsman in the side, he took over the wicketkeeping duties.
One of the lows of his career
was the 2007 World Cup, when
under his leadership, India
crashed out in the first round.
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