Rahul Dravid's

Rahul Dravid's exclusion from the ODI team for the Pakistan series is a clear indication that time might be running out for India's 'Big Three' - Sachin, Sourav and Dravid himself. On Saturday, the 34-year-old former skipper became the first to succumb to the heat generated by the recent success of the youngsters who won the Twenty20 World Cup.

As reported by TOI on October 24 and 27, Dravid's position in the ODI squad was under a cloud, especially after his recent poor run in the One-day series against Australia, when he scored 51 runs in six matches.

On Saturday, the national selectors, led by Dilip Vengsarkar, finally took the 'tough decision' of leaving out Dravid of the one-day team for the first two matches against Pakistan beginning on November 5. ODI and T20 skipper M S Dhoni was consulted over the phone about the selection and very much a party to the decision.

"One of the reasons for his omission is that we didn't want a situation where Dravid is in the 15 and not in the playing XI, like it happened with Sourav Ganguly earlier," said a selector.