Former India cricketer and former head coach of Team India Rahul Dravid came forward to support captain Shubman Gill, who is currently the leader of India’s Test and ODI setup. A few days ago, Gill had said that the players should get some extra time to prepare for the Test match. Dravid said the same thing during a recent program.
Team India, led by Gautam Gambhir and Shubman Gill, has faced some uncertain moments in recent times, especially in Tests. Consecutive defeats in the Test series have put a question mark on the overall credibility of the team. According to Gill, if he gets more days to prepare then the result can be better.
Rahul Dravid supports Shubman Gill’s demand
During a recent event, former India cricketer Rahul Dravid, under whom India won the ICC T20 World Cup 2024 title, mentioned that cricket and Test cricket are completely different games in the limited overs format. Cricketers will have to go through a process to get accustomed to a different format for Test matches, which may take several days, which will not be easy. According to Dravid, the longest format of the game tests the skills of cricketers the best.
Dravid said, “Shubman Gill has mentioned it a little bit recently, because I think he has experienced that. He has actually played all three formats for us recently, so I think he has realized how difficult it is for him to actually get ready for the Test format. People who play all three formats, they keep moving from one format to the other.”
Shubman Gill asked for 15 days preparation camp
Shubman Gill is one of the few Indian players to have played for the national team in all three formats. Therefore, due to the busy schedule, Gill and other multi-format cricketers often get very limited time to prepare. Following the shock 0-2 home series defeat to South Africa, Gill had requested for a mandatory 15-day preparation camp before each Test series. Earlier, India had to taste crushing defeat against New Zealand and Australia in this format also.
Dravid said that Indian players are getting a lot of time in Twenty-20 format instead of Test cricket. For the Indian Premier League (IPL), cricketers had to stick to T20 cricket for a period of about three months, which took a lot of time to get used to a particular format. Since players are now spending most of their time in T20, Team India is also performing well in T20.
Test match is not easy: Dravid
Dravid said, “There were times when we would arrive three to four days before the Test match and then when we start practicing for the Test match, when you look back and see that some of these guys actually hit the red ball, it could have been four months before or five months before.”
“It has become a real challenge. How do you find the time to be able to develop some of the difficult skills? Playing on turning tracks or playing on seaming wickets, it’s not easy to do that for hours and hours in a Test match. It takes skill.”
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