Young India batsmen are not bad players of spin: Dravid

New Delhi, September 2

Former India captain Rahul Dravid says it’s a misconception that the current Indian cricketers are bad players of spin. He said their struggle against the Sri Lankan spinners in the recently concluded series had more to do with pressure than ability.

India A coach Dravid, who has just finished a long series against Australia and South Africa A teams, opines that Indian youngsters are still good players of spin and can go a long way if they do a few nips and tucks.

“There were a couple of times in this series that we got stuck. We were not able to rotate the strike and the pressure came on and we lost two or three wickets quickly. Yet, I don’t think the Indians are bad players of spin,” Dravid asserted.

“Maybe the high pressure cricket these boys are playing gets to them. One just needs to learn how to create a single; Mohammad Azharuddin and VVS Laxman could do that easily on slow turning tracks,” he added.

“In terms of shot-making ability against spin, I think this generation is incredible. They step out and hit sixes, some of the creativity I see against spin is terrific,” said Dravid.

“They (youngsters) are not struggling to play long-form cricket. There are a lot of very good long-form cricket players like AB de Villiers, Virat Kohli, Steven Smith. They are tremendous T20 players as well. It would be unfair to say that they are unable to play long-form cricket. I think challenges change and the environment has changed a little bit,” he said.

Dravid insists that the youngsters are as keen to play the longer-format as they were when they started out. “Definitely, they just as keen. When I look at them, they are keen to play Test cricket, they are very keen to succeed in the long-form game or the four-day cricket that they play in the Ranji Trophy. They all want to do well at it.” — PTI