The Duleep Trophy will mark some good practice for Test stars VVS Laxman & Rahul Dravid ahead of the New Zealand tour.

By Chandraboli Mitra

With Laxman not having played much in New Zealand and Dravid being out of form for a year now, except for one century he scored in the last Test match against England, this might just prove to be the right platform to get ready for the grueling Test series Down Under.

In fact, the Duleep Trophy has a history of some famous turnarounds. It turned out to be the comeback road for Sourav Ganguly to the national team with a powerful century in 2005, while Mansur Ali Khan Pataudi's 200 in 1967, after resigning as India captain, had his critics begging him to remain the skipper of the national team.

And although Laxman and Dravid face no such dilemma as far as their tickets to New Zealand are concerned, it would nevertheless give them just the right preparation they are looking for.

Laxman has little experience of playing in New Zealand. He played just two matches in New Zealand during the tour of 2002, and managed to score only 27 runs. So, the Hyderabadi will be more than keen to set his records straight this time around.

On the other hand, Dravid can take pride at having scored 452 runs in four matches he played in New Zealand at an average of 64.57, which includes two centuries. And hence, ‘The Wall', who been in awful form of late, would be determined to silence his critics with another eye-catching performance there.