Rahul Dravid praises AB de Villiers and Brendon McCullum

Rahul Dravid

Former Indian captain Rahul Dravid praised AB de Villiers and Brendon McCullum for their shot-making and incredible batting displays in the Indian Premier League.

"Even in best of form, I could not imagine to play that way. He (AB de Villiers) and Brendon McCullum are showing the way ahead for the youngsters. The game is going ahead. Viv Richards (West Indies great) first showed how to attack and then (Sanath) Jayasuriya and (Romesh) Kaluwitharana (of Sri Lanka) showed how to bat in the first 15 overs of an ODI," he said.

Dravid spoke about the balance needed in the game between bat and bowl and supported the idea of allowing bowlers to deliver two bouncers per over even in T20 games.

"Currently, if a bowler bowls a bouncer off the first ball of an over, the batsmen can attack him as they know he cannot bowl another bouncer in that over. Even in T20s two bouncers per over should be allowed. The boundary length should also be increased to redress the balance," said Dravid.

He added that players like de Villiers and New Zealand skipper McCullum possess the natural gift of adapting the same way in all formats.

"In Test cricket, the wicket conditions are different. There are situations when you have to bat to save the game. Both de Villiers and Brendon McCullum are able to adapt their game to the different formats which is what great players do," he explained.