‘I would have a whole month of practicing for a Test series’ – Rahul Dravid on challenge of preparing for red-ball cricket in modern era

Rahul Dravid (Source: X)

Former Indian cricketer Rahul Dravid has opined that today’s crop of batters are not getting adequate time out of their packed schedule to properly prepare for Test cricket. The former India head coach made his comments during the launch of the book The Rise of the Hitman: The Rohit Sharma Story in Bengaluru.

He commented on his experience with the players he had coached during his stint with the Indian team. Dravid, who has scored 13,288 Test runs, also noted that batting in the conditions presented in Test cricket requires a lot of skill and consistent training.

“There were times when we would get to a Test match three to four days before the match, and then when we start practising for the Test match, [and] when you look back at the last time that some of these guys had actually hit a red ball, it might have been four months ago or five months ago. That’s become really a challenge, how do you almost find the time to be able to develop some of the skills that are hard. To play on turning tracks, or play on seaming wickets, doing that for hours and hours in a Test match is not easy. It requires skill,” stated Dravid, as quoted by ESPNcricinfo.

He compared the scenario from his playing days to the modern-day landscape. Like Shubman Gill had recently pointed out, Dravid maintained his stance that players involved in playing all formats do not get the time to hone their red-ball skills.

“In my generation, when there were only two formats in the game, and there wasn’t really the idea of franchise cricket, there were a lot of times where I would have a whole month of practicing for a Test series and I would be able to play with the red ball, and I would be able to develop my skills. Now, one of the things that has become a bit tougher in red-ball cricket is a lot of our guys who play all the three formats, or who play the amount of cricket that they are playing, sometimes don’t have the time to be able to practice red-ball cricket as much,” the legendary batter added.

India have recently struggled in the Test match arena. The batters have not been able to adapt to conditions, which have led to a couple of home series defeats (2024 against New Zealand and 2025 against South Africa). During both these series, the batting lineup suffered major collapses, and the Indian batters were unable to get substantial runs to their names.

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