Does Dravid have one final innings left in him?

One of the saddest sights in sport is the ageing, once-great player struggling to come to terms with his game in full public glare. Struggling architects who have run out of ideas can repeat themselves or rely on their juniors, struggling politicians can hire a PR agency and bluff their way back into power. But struggling sportsmen have no such cushion: when the goals dry up or the runs stop coming there is no place to hide. The past is no guide to the future. The present is all. Sport is cruel.

And right now Rahul Dravid, one of the few players of his generation both loved and respected, finds himself facing the question that two of his contemporaries, Sourav Ganguly and Anil Kumble, thought had only one answer. Ganguly gave himself a tension-free Australia series by announcing at the start of it that it would be his last. Kumble’s end was hastened by injury.

Even his worst critics, however, hope that over the next two days, as India begin a fourth-innings chase, Dravid rediscovers his old form. He might still decide to quit, but at least that will be out of choice and not because of circumstances. In the recent past, he has been a piece of classical music played at the wrong speed. Even when he has looked good, every note in place, he has suddenly faltered, and even when he hasn’t faltered he has looked like going off key any moment.

At 35, Dravid cannot look outside his natural game for answers. He is not likely to change his game and hit himself out of trouble as he sees the light at the end of the tunnel begin to flicker ominously.

Dravid needs to find the solutions playing like Dravid, and time is running out. His catching is beginning to let him down too. It was strange to see him field on the leg-side boundary today.

He will be the first to admit that he has had the support of the selectors and his captain. The slide began in England a year ago, with whatever went wrong causing him to give up captaincy. The man who consistently averaged above 55 averages around 30 this year. The thoroughbred - to change our analogy - is turning into a cart-horse. It is not a pretty sight.

Does he have one final match-winning (or match-saving) innings in him? The romantics will hope he does. One good innings is all he needs, say friend and foe alike, but with every failure hope is beginning to recede.

Not for the first time, a visiting team written off before the start of the series is about to upset all calculations. Seldom can a fourth innings have been so important - for country and individual - as the one that is about to unfold before us.