With the unrelenting heat and humidity in Dhaka, India will go into the second Test aganist Bangladesh, starting on Friday, with the cushion of five bowlers while keeping out seasoned batsmen VVS Laxman and Yuvraj Singh.
Rookie paceman Ishant Sharma, who was called in to replace an injured Munaf Patel, has been drafted in to the final twelve for the Test.
"VVS Laxman, Yuvraj Singh and VRV Singh are going to miss out, so that is the 12 for tomorrow's match," Dravid said in Dhaka on Thursday.
The weather in Bangladeshi capital, which at best can be termed as playing under a huge cover of sauna, has been unforgiving and promises to be tough on the players.
The first Test in Chittagong ended in a draw after almost three days were lost to bad weather. The teams and fans would be keen to get a full game, preferably one that produces a result, although rain has been predicted in coming days.
The Indian camp has indicated that they would go in with three spinners, handing former Mumbai and Baroda left-arm spinner Rajesh Pawar his Test debut. The think tank believes the pitch is more suited to spin than pace.
Infact, 19 wickets (out of 29) went to spinners in the two one-dayers staged in Dhaka earlier this month.
"We are keeping that option open of either playing with the third spinner or with the third quick, which will give Ishant Sharma a game. We are keeping that option open till we have a one last look at the wicket in the morning," Dravid said.
"The wicket is similar to the last game in the sense that it has no grass on it. It's a different soil, more black soil as compared to the red soil in the last game. We think it might keep a bit lower as the game progresses; it might spin a bit more depending. It looks firm at the moment but might start keeping a bit low as we have seen in the one-day matches also as the games goes on and the sun comes out."
Meanwhile, curator Badiul Alam Khokon said: "The cracks will widen as the game goes and it will take turn on day 3, 4
and 5. If you ask me, I think the captain winning the toss must bat first."
With the wicket expecting to turn it seem strange that India opted to leave out Laxman, regarded as one of the best batsman of spin. But it was a rather forced decision with 'untouchable' trio of Dravid, Sachin Tendulkar and Sourav Ganguly making
up the middle order.
The Indian captain also added that leaving out Laxman for the second consecutive match was a difficult decision.
"Laxman has been picked as a middle order batsman. We felt that on this tour especially in these conditions we are very keen on playing five bowlers. So he is fighting for one of three slots in the middle order. Between myself, Sachin, Sourav, Yuvraj and Laxman, we are fighting for three spots.
"In some tour it might be four slots. So it is unfortunate that both Yuvraj and Laxman had to miss out. It is not an easy decision for me, it never has been and never will be."
Dravid believes that Bangladesh are suspectible to pressure and India should not have a problem winning the match, weather permitting
"We know that we can put them under pressure, we know they are prone to situations where they can lose wickets quickly. But they can bat well even lower down the order. But if we play to potential then I think we should win," he said.
Dravid also gave his full backing to opener Wasim Jaffer, who failed to open his scoring in both innings of the last Test match.
"The selectors were quite clear that irrespective of what happened in the first game, when we sat down for the meeting that we would not be changing our opening combination after every game.
"In a two-Test series, you would not be changing your openers after the first game itself. Wasim got a hundred in the last Test at Cape Town [against South Africa]. But the feeling was we were not going to change him if he failed for one game or for that matter it was agreed that Dinesh Karthik was going to open for a couple of games to prove his credentials as an opener."
Many have questioned the wisdom of opening the innings with Karthik, a second wicket-keeper who is playing in the team as a pure batsman, and whether it would work in the seaming pitches in England. But Dravid believes that the Tamil Nadu youngster has got all the requisites needed of an opening batsman in Tests.
"Karthik is a wicketkeeper, but he is playing as an opening batsman and he has been scoring runs. It does not matter what you are, whether you are a specialist, regular, official, unofficial, non-regular, at the end of the day it is the runs that matter," he said.
He, indirectly, also gave the example of Virender Sehwag, who served India well since being promoted as an opener till recently when he was dropped due to indifferent form.
"In my ten years of playing for India, the guy who has been the most consistent and who has got runs for us as opener over the 10 years with some consistency has been a middle order batsman who has been converted to an opener. So it really does not make a difference what you are.
For now all his focus is on the second Test, which India will hope to win convincingly, perhaps a befitting reward for all the hard work put in the last two weeks.
