Rahul Dravid feels Indian batsmen don't rotate strike as much as they should
Rahul Dravid is concerned about the effect T20 is having on the younger Indian batsmen’s approach to cricket, ESPNCricinfo reports. The batting legend feels that the modern generation is finding it hard to strike a balance between trying to defend and attack which has in turn diminished their ability to rotate the strike.
A relatively young Indian side fell prey to the Sri Lankan spin duo of Rangana Herath and Tharindu Kaushal who picked up all ten wickets in the visitors’ second innings to condemn them to a 63-run defeat in the first Test at Galle. Dravid had already spoken about batsmen failing to give due respect to the slower bowlers in the wake of that defeat and the 42-year-old has now added to his previous comments.
"In terms of shot making ability against spin, this generation is incredible," Dravid said. "The shots they play against spin like stepping out and hitting sixes, and some of the creativity is terrific. They have got that.(But) one of the areas that could be a concern for Indian cricket is that there is a lack of balance; people are either defending or hitting big shots and it easy to set field to that as you can set in-out fields.”
"The ability to rotate the strike and construct a partnership when people have put men on the boundary line, and not hitting cover or point all the time, being able to hit to long-on or long-off and playing risk-free cricket and building an innings against spin on tracks that are slow and turn a bit (is missing).”
"I think that's a skill that needs to be worked on and developed because a lot of the young batsmen are either defending or trying to hit big shots, and there is no in-between. That puts pressure on you because in a high-pressure situation, it becomes hard to play a really big shot and if you keep blocking balls, the pressure builds up on you."
Dravid, who is currently coach of the India A team acknowledged that the same problem led to his team’s defeat against Australia A last month and added that emphasis needs to be laid on rotating the strike.
"That happened a few times to us (A team) in the last series where we got ourselves stuck by not rotating the strike and the pressure came on and we lost two-three wickets quickly. That is a skill that definitely needs developing.”
"We are not bad players of spin suddenly, but maybe the fact that these boys play a lot of T20 cricket where the value of the single is not so much and you can play big shots means that the ability to create the single like VVS Laxman or Mohammad Azharuddin is a skill that needs to be worked on."
Dravid feels that the growing influence of T20 cricket is one of the main reasons for this modern trend.
"You are a product of your environment, and now the environment has changed with there being a lot of one-day and T20 cricket. It is high-pressure T20 cricket. You are practising two months of T20 cricket day in and day out, and suddenly three weeks later you have come to play an A series on a super dry wicket in Chennai where you have to learn how to rotate the strike and can't play the same shots. To be fair, as the series went on, the players worked on it and they adjusted and got better at it."