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The Times of India

Sport

JAC Gladson | TNN

Rahul Dravid asks team to 'pace yourself' for 'marathon' England series

Rahul Dravid England India KL Rahul Stokes Alastair Cook Dilip Vengsarkar Graham Gooch Ian Botham James Anderson

HYDERABAD: India’s last few Test matches have been truncated affairs. In recent times, a creeping disregard for the longest format of the game — as seen in the scheduling of a two-Test series in South Africa — has been widely debated.

Speaking on the issue ahead of the five-Test series against England beginning here on Thursday, India coach Rahul Dravid spoke on the challenges of putting players on the park in such a long series, which also involves a lot of travel.

However, it does gives the teams, as Dravid put it, a chance to test strengths and iron out weaknesses.

“Sometimes you’re struggling for form and it’s hard to come back if you fail in the early part of the Test series. But a five-match series is like a marathon where you’ve got to pace yourself. So, I think it’s a really good test for the two teams. The downside from my perspective is it’s tough for teams like us and England, who play a lot of cricket in different formats of the game. It’s a big factor how to manage the schedules of some of our (more) busy players. Then they’ll have to choose a specific time as to which form of cricket they’re playing,” he said.

India last played a five-match series against England during the pandemic and the Tests had to be staggered due to Covid.

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“It’s always exciting when England come (to India), because it’s one of the most followed Test series in the world. It should be five good Test matches after a long time. I really hope that we hit the ground running and maybe strike a few balls early on,” Dravid said.

‘Batters won’t take a backward step’

The India coach also hoped that his players will respond to the challenge in the absence of Virat Kohli, who has pulled out of the first two Tests for personal reasons.

“Guys like Rohit have been around for a while, Jaddu (Jadeja) and Ash (Ashwin) have been around for more than a decade. Even KL (Rahul) has been around for a while. It’s a good opportunity for them over the course of the next five games to set some good markers as there is a lot of Test cricket (for us) over the next 12 to 18 months. It’s a good opportunity for young players to take the next step,” he said.

Dravid also said India would not take a step back when it comes to confronting England’s ‘Bazball’ style of aggressive batting.

“I don’t think we are going to be ultra-attacking. We look to play what the situation demands. But by nature, if you look at our top six-seven batsmen, a lot of guys are naturally positive and look to take the game on. There’ll be some different situations in which we may need to look to push the game along or bat for long periods. But I can’t see any of my batsmen taking a backward step or looking to be defensive,” he said.

‘KL Rahul won’t keep wickets’

Rahul, the coach clarified, will play as a batter this series. “Rahul will not be playing as a wicketkeeper in this series, and we were clear about that in the selection itself. We have two other wicketkeepers (KS Bharat and Dhruv Jurel). Rahul did a fantastic job for us in South Africa and played a big part in helping us draw the series. But considering five Tests and playing in these conditions, the selection will be between the two other keepers we have,” he said.

The Indian coach made light of England’s practice in the UAE, many miles away from the match venue, but was certain they would be tough competitors. “It’s been exciting to watch them play, and they’ve had success playing like that. They’ve done well in Pakistan. They’ve won in New Zealand and had a really exciting series against Australia in the Ashes. But we know it’s going to be a challenge for them in these conditions because these are conditions we know very well. We have a lot of experience in our attack. I’m looking forward to seeing how our boys respond, because I know that we will be put under pressure.”

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Bracing for some early turn?

On the nature of the pitch, Dravid said it would take spin for sure. “It’s a hard one to say. We will have a look once it (the match) starts and figure it out. It looks good, but may spin a little. How quickly and how fast, I’m not sure. But it might spin certainly as the game goes on,” he said when asked about the surface.

England pacer Mark Wood, on his part, said, “We’ve discussed the pitch. But I wouldn’t say we discuss it at length or have been worried about it. We have enough self-belief in our group that we can do something special. We’ve got spinners, we’ve got seam, we’ve got good batters and we’ve got a good recent history behind us.”