Batsmen have to be better prepared when they go to England next time: Dravid

Rahul Dravid, the last captain to lead India to a series win in England, says the current side faced unusually tough conditions in the recently concluded five-match rubber and the batsmen must prepare better before embarking on the next English tour.”Lets 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 DIN query here on Friday.”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 we can. It was tough out there. Lets face it,” said the Indian batting great at the launch of Manipal Hospitals’ first branch in the national capital.
After guiding India to their first series win in England since 1986, Dravid stood out amongst the Indian batsmen on the tour four years later in 2011, scoring three hundreds even though the side was handed a 0-4 hammering by the hosts.
The most recent 1-4 series loss in England was India’s third in a row with batsmen letting the team down innings after innings. The performance left the Indian fans seething, and coach Ravi Shastri added fuel to the fire by calling the current team the best travelling side of the last 15-20 years, even though the results painted a different picture. India’s lack of preparation ahead of the series was also heavily criticised.Dravid, however, did not read much into Shastri’s remark.”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,” said the 45-year-old, who has 13,288 Test runs to his name.