Rahul Dravid to mentor Indian batsmen during England series

Rahul Dravid

Retired Indian batting great Rahul Dravid has agreed to mentor the Indian batsmen during the England series. The MS Dhoni-led team will play 5 Tests, 5 One Day Internationals and 1 Twenty20 international in England, with the first Test at Trent Bridge starting from July 9.

Former Indian cricketer Aakash Chopra was the first to confirm the news through his official Twitter handle. He tweeted:

Making his international debut back in 1996 at Lord’s, England, Dravid went on to represent India in 164 Tests, 344 ODIs and 1 T20I, scoring more than 24,000 international runs. The 41-year-old, who called it a day after the final Test match of the 4-match series against Australia in January 2012, is regarded as one of the finest batsman the world has ever seen.

"It was the coach (Duncan Fletcher) who approached us on behalf of the team and said it would be good to have Rahul with his vast experience spend some time with the boys ahead of the series," Patel told ESPNcricinfo. "We immediately requested Rahul and he readily agreed."

His experience and technical input would come in handy for the Indian youngsters, who, with the exception of Virat Kohli and Cheteshwar Pujara, have found it difficult to negotiate the swing and bounce in their previous overseas outings.

Sidelined from limited overs cricket earlier in his career for being overly defensive, the former Indian No. 3 made his critics eat humble pie by constantly improving on the front and sealing a permanent spot in the ODI set-up with a memorable performance in the 1999 World Cup, where he ended up as the tournament’s leading run-scorer: 461 runs, 8 matches, strike-rate of 85.52.

It is worth noting that while the entire Indian batting unit with the inclusion of Sachin Tendulkar and VVS Laxman struggled in their last visit to England, Dravid emerged as the leading Indian run-getter of the series, scoring 3 centuries in 8 innings. Overall, Dravid has an astonishing batting figures in the Old Blighty, scoring 1376 Test runs in 13 matches at an average of 68.80.

Rahul Dravid to be the batting consultant for the tour of England...wonderful decision by the BCCI. #kudos

— Aakash Chopra (@cricketaakash) June 29, 2014