Rahul Dravid claims India's batting in Test cricket is a 'work in progress'

Mumbai: Legendary India cricketer Rahul Dravid is of the opinion that playing a couple of practice games ahead of the start of an overseas series will only benefit the players.

He also went onto state that India’s batting in Test cricket was a ‘work in progress’.

“I benefitted hugely from having proper first-class games. Maybe schedules have changed and things are more complicated, but there is no doubt that a couple of first-class games before any Test tour is only going to help. I found this 14 playing 14 [rotation system] started happening towards the end of my career. I did not like those games as a player,” Dravid was quoted saying by The Week.

“Work constantly needs to happen. It is not a one-time thing or a two-year thing. I think it is important to tighten the process or programme that exists at U-19 and A team levels. Make it more robust. Make sure there are opportunities every year,” he said.

Virat Kohli-led India played two T20Is against Ireland ahead of the shorter-format series against England, whereas they played just one practice game against County side Essex before the Test series. In fact, the match against Essex was reduced to three days.

“There is now a path for people who do well in the Ranji Trophy. I definitely feel that in white-ball cricket we have lot of depth, largely due to the amount of white-ball cricket that is played. In red-ball cricket, we have talent and decent backups, but again it is a work in progress,” the 45-year-old went onto say.

He also opened up on the Indian team selection.

“That will be one of the biggest challenges we will face in the future.

"Opportunities to play in the Indian team are limited and sometimes you could be doing everything right, and still not get selected,” the former Karanataka cricketer said.

“You can only get selected if the position opens up. It is happening a lot more now, because there is a lot more cricket [being played]. But, people are getting opportunities to showcase their talent more than they could in the past,” he added.

After the full-fledged West Indies series, India are scheduled to travel to Australia for a tour which consists of three T20Is, four Tests and three ODIs.