When India last won a Test series in England in 2007, Rahul Dravid was the Indian captain and the Indian batting flourished under his leadership.
However, for the past three tours to England, Team India has lost the Test series 0-4, 1-3 and 1-4 and what has been problematic was the performance of Indian batsmen. Now Rahul Dravid has given his thoughts on what the batsmen must do before the next tour to England.
"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 in response to a PTI.
"As I said, we need to look ahead. The next time we go there, we have to be better prepared for these kind of conditions and try and replicate conditions as best as we possibly can. It was tough out there. Let's face it," said 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 learnt 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," opined Dravid, who scored 13,288 runs in Tests for India.
"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 the now U19 coach Dravid.
Rahul Dravid said, "India surely had their moments. They played some very good cricket in what I thought were pretty difficult conditions, especially for the batsmen. They were competitive for most part of the series, but I am sure the team looks at it as an opportunity missed. They would feel, having played so well in certain parts of Test matches, they were not able to finish off games. Still there are some positives to take from the series. Our bowling and fielding, especially catching, went on very good but like I said the team would feel it had its chances and unfortunately it did not work out."
"Afghanistan is doing well, I don't know why we are only focusing on Pakistan. Bangladesh too are doing well. Afghanistan also are a force to reckon with. If I was in the team I would not just be focusing on Pakistan. We are playing very good white ball cricket, but we have to be careful of other teams too," Dravid concluded with his opinion on Asia Cup 2018.
(With PTI inputs)
