MUMBAI, Feb 21: Indian cricket captain Rahul Dravid overruled selection committee and opened innings in Test series against Pakistan to shield predecessor Saurav Ganguly from strong Pakistan pace attack, Indian team manger Raj Singh Dungarpur said on Tuesday.

“A captain must be able to set an example of sacrifice. He did not want to expose Saurav Ganguly as an opener. He overruled selection committee of which I was a part.

“We said ‘No, you can’t open the innings’. He (Dravid) said that let not somebody say that we made him (Ganguly) a sacrificial goat. So he opened innings and got a hundred (128 not out),” Singh, a former Indian cricket board chief, said.

Recalling events that led to intense discussion between Dravid, Ganguly and coach Greg Chappell minutes before start of Lahore Test, Singh revealed: “He (Dravid) got up early on morning of the match and went to (coach) Greg Chappell’s room and said ‘I will open the innings’.”

This disclosure clears what transpired during discussion that was shown on television and sparked much speculation. It also means that decision on who would open innings with Virender Sehwag was not taken at team meeting on eve of Test.

So Dravid partnered vice-captain Sehwag, who scored 254, and put up 410 runs, missing the world record by a mere three runs.

While India drew that weather-affected Test and lost series 0-1, they won one-day series 4-1.

Asked if selection committee was convinced that Dravid would do a fine job as he is essentially a No 3 batsman, Singh said: “It’s because he wanted to open innings and he thought it would be unfair to expose Ganguly like that.

“Dravid led the team by example. And this is a hallmark of being a leader,” maintained Singh, who heads Mumbai’s Cricket Club of India.—Agencies