‘We’ve ticked all boxes’: Dravid satisfied with India’s preparation for one-off Test

Leicester, June 27

India ticked all the required boxes during the four-day practice match against Leicestershire and will look to hit the ground running when they face England in the rescheduled one-off Test beginning Friday, said head coach Rahul Dravid.

Shreyas Iyer, Virat Kohli, Shubman Gill, Rishabh Pant and Ravindra Jadeja—all struck fifties during the drawn warm-up game.

“I think whatever we needed to achieve and whatever boxes we needed to tick in terms of our preparation leading into the Test match on Friday, I think we are very satisfied and happy, we have been able to do that this week,” Dravid said in a video posted by Leicestershire Foxes on Twitter.

Asked about the challenges of playing in English conditions, Dravid said: “When you have got just one game or one-off game in a series, its not really a lot of time, you’ve got to hit the ground running hard and you’ve got to be able to hopefully get your act together right from the first day of the Test match.

“There is not lot of room to maneuver or things to go wrong. So having said that it has been a good week. I thought the match wicket was challenging on first couple of days and settle down in the last two so, it was good, it was a great week.”

The former India batter also gave a thumbs up to the facilities and atmosphere here.

“I thought you know everyone’s really looked after us really well. It’s been great crowds you know, it’s really lovely to see so many people come to watch the game like this and just the atmosphere and the vibe have been excellent,” he said.

India were leading the series 2-1 last year before the final Test was abandoned owing to a COVID-19 outbreak in the visitors’ camp.