Rahul Dravid happy with India’s preparation for England Test

Leicester, June 27

India ticked all the boxes during the four-day practice match against Leicestershire and will look to hit the ground running when they face England in the rescheduled one-off Test which begins on Friday, says head coach Rahul Dravid.

Mayank to join squad as cover for Rohit

New Delhi: Opener Mayank Agarwal has been called up to join the Indian squad in the UK as cover for skipper Rohit Sharma, who has been rendered doubtful for the Edgbaston Test against England after testing positive for Covid-19.

Shreyas Iyer, Virat Kohli, Shubman Gill, Rishabh Pant and Ravindra Jadeja made half-centuries during the drawn warm-up game.

“I think whatever we needed to achieve and whatever boxes we needed to tick in terms of our preparation leading into the Test match on Friday, I think we are very satisfied and happy, we have been able to do that this week,” Dravid said.

Asked about the challenges of playing in English conditions, Dravid said: “When you have got just one game or one-off game in a series, it’s not really a lot of time. You’ve got to hit the ground running hard and you’ve got to be able to hopefully get your act together right from the first day of the Test match.”

“There is not lot of room to manoeuvre or things to go wrong. So having said that, it has been a good week. I thought the match wicket was challenging on first couple of days and settle down in the last two so, it was good, it was a great week,” he added.

The former India batter also appreciated the facilities and atmosphere at the venue. “I thought you know everyone’s really looked after us really well,” he said.

India were leading the series 2-1 last year before the final Test was abandoned owing to a Covid-19 outbreak in the visitors’ camp.