Rahul Dravid wants Virat Kohli & Co to play warm-up games before overseas series

There have been a lot of discussions about the Indian cricket team playing warm-up matches ahead of overseas series and if Virat Kohli criticizing the quality of opposition in those matches, the debate was shifted towards the skipper’s views. However, Rahul Dravid disagrees with Kohli’s statements and he believes that it is necessary for the cricketers to play couple of first-class matches before the series.

“I benefitted hugely from having proper first-class games. Maybe schedules have changed and things are more complicated, but there is no doubt that a couple of first-class games before any Test tour is only going to help. I found this 14 playing 14 [rotation system] started happening towards the end of my career. I did not like those games as a player,” Dravid told The Week in an interview.

Dravid also feels that the Indian players lack practice with the red-ball and as a result, are a ‘work in progress’ despite being experts in white-ball cricket.

“Work constantly needs to happen. It is not a one-time thing or a two-year thing. I think it is important to tighten the process or programme that exists at U-19 and A team levels. Make it more robust. Make sure there are opportunities every year,”

“There is now a path for people who do well in the Ranji Trophy. I definitely feel that in white-ball cricket we have lot of depth, largely due to the amount of white-ball cricket that is played. In red-ball cricket, we have talent and decent backups, but again it is a work in progress,” he said.

India were completely outplayed during the Test series against England but Dravid doesn’t believe that they lack team depth and he went on to say that India are actually facing a problem of plenty.

“That will be one of the biggest challenges we will face in the future. Opportunities to play in the Indian team are limited and sometimes you could be doing everything right, and still not get selected,” said Dravid. “You can only get selected if the position opens up. It is happening a lot more now, because there is a lot more cricket [being played]. But, people are getting opportunities to showcase their talent more than they could in the past,” he said.

First Published: Oct 09, 2018 16:42 IST