England vs India: Rahul Dravid predicts the outcome of the Test series

The England vs India Test series starts tomorrow at Edgbaston and everyone has their predictor’s hat on. The conditions here are tough as always but a bit that could work in the visiting team’s favour is the extended English summer, the pitches are dry and that might bring the spinners into play. While some think it is the performance of the batsmen that will determine the outcome of the series Rahul Dravid disagrees.

Dravid is the last Indian captain who won a series in this part of the world. His team that travelled to England back in 2007 won the three-match series 1-0. On the previous tour in 2014 under MS Dhoni, they won a Test match at Lord’s but lost the series 3-1. Dravid who is also in England said that the batsmen will get runs at some point but what will be interesting to see is if the bowlers get 20 wickets.

Fondest memory

Talking about his fondest memory in England, he said that it is walking out to bat at the iconic Lord’s Cricket Ground. “I think my fondest memory is that of walking out at Lord’s being an Indian test player for the first time. I think that’s, you know for me, that’s something that, it was a dream come true and the thing I dreamt of,” he told BBC 5.

Dravid further emphasized the need to get acclimatized to the conditions. He said that a five-match series gives the team some time to get back even if they start poor. Whereas in a three-match series there is no time.

“One of the important things is how quickly you adapt to the conditions. When we won here it was a three-match test series, so you couldn’t afford to start badly. The five-match series you have a little bit more time I guess, to get into it,” the India U19 coach said.

Team India has already suffered two injury blows as Jasprit Bumrah isn’t available for the first match while Bhuvneshwar Kumar will at least miss three. In their absence, the onus will be on Ishant Sharma, Umesh Yadav and Mohammed Shami to deliver the goods. The team management also needs to ensure that their bowlers remain fit as they have to play five Tests in six weeks.

“But I think the important this is, and I do think the India team has a good chance here but the key will be the ability to take 20 wickets and does India have the ability to take 20 wickets. I have no doubt that we will score runs at some stage, but the key is to keep our fast bowlers fit and we’ve got a good crop of young fast bowlers, its five test matches in 6 weeks,” Dravid said.

“When we won here in 2007 the same fast bowlers played all the three matches and we were lucky that nobody got injured and I think that made a big difference,” he further mentioned.

The wall’s prediction

When asked to predict the final outcome of the series, he said he has to say India and it will be 2-1 in favour of the visiting team.

Watch the video here:

"I have to say India!"

Batting legend Rahul Dravid is backing India to beat England in this summer's series.

Hear more from him in this week's The Doosra podcast: https://t.co/L8eb8gWWLN pic.twitter.com/H1tgYhFBUo

— BBC 5 Live Sport (@5liveSport) July 31, 2018

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