Batsmen Should be Well Prepared for Next Tour of England - Rahul Dravid
Updated - 21 Sep 2018, 07:42 PM
Former Indian captain Rahul Dravid believes batsmen should be well prepared for the next tour of England. India decided to play a solitary warm-up match before the Test series and had to pay the price. Therefore, Indian batsmen could not get acclimatize to the conditions and let the team down with their performances. Meanwhile, Indian captain Virat Kohli was the lone warrior for the side.
Kohli scored 593 runs, however, he ended on the wrong side of the result. Ajinkya Rahane and Cheteshwar Pujara were good in patches but failed to come up with consistent performances. Shikhar Dhawan also could not get going on the England tour.
India could not win the crucial junctions of the series.
Furthermore, the middle order except Virat Kohli could not make a mark. On the other hand, Indian bowlers were able to come up with great performances. However, they didn’t receive the same support from the batsmen.
Dravid said the conditions in England is never easy for the batsmen. The ball moves in all the directions and it is crucial for the batsmen to get familiar with the conditions.
“Let’s just be honest first. The conditions in England were not easy for batting. I think batsmen of both teams struggled. If you take out Virat Kohli from the equation, it was not an easy series for the batsmen. I have played in England quite a bit, the conditions can be tough, but it is rare to find five Test matches which had conditions as tough as the one they found,” Dravid said as quoted by PTI.
Meanwhile, the Wall believes they need to be better prepared for the next tour of England. India can learn from their mistakes and improve themselves.
We need to plan for future tours.
“As I said, we need to look ahead. The next time we go there, we have to be better prepared for these kinds of conditions and try and replicate conditions as best as we possibly can. It was tough out there. Let’s face it,” said the Wall.
On the other hand, Rahul Dravid refused to comment on Ravi Shastri’s statement. In fact, Dravid is more interested in the fact that the players should learn from their experience.
Important to learn from the mistakes, says Rahul Dravid.
“I think the whole thing was a little bit blown out of proportion. I am not really interested in commenting on what Mr. Shastri feels or he doesn’t feel. For me the main thing is what have we learned from this series? What are the lessons that we need to take forward next time we go there? It doesn’t matter whether we are the best or not. These are irrelevant things for me,” Rahul Dravid went on to add.
Meanwhile, India tours England in every four years. Thus, Dravid believes India would have been disappointed as they had a good side. The bowling did its part but they were not backed by the batsmen.
“Tours like England happens once in three or four years and players who have been part of the series and even the coaching staff, they will be disappointed after losing because you never know what happens in four years’ time. We really had a good team this time, the bowling was exceptional, but it still did not work out,” said Rahul Dravid.
It was a disappointing tour of England for the Virat Kohli-led side. They were close but could not apply the finishing touches.
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India National Cricket Team Rahul Dravid Ravi Shastri Virat Kohli
