Kevin Pietersen is eternally grateful to Rahul Dravid for his insights that helped the former England batter hit tons of runs in India. And now, he wants Dravid, the current India head coach, to do the same to Shubman Gill. The youngster has failed to make it big in Test cricket. In the IND vs ENG 1st Test, Shubman Gill fell for 23, failing to replicate his success in ODIs.
Pietersen found mistakes in Shubman Gill’s 66-ball stay. And now wants Dravid to correct Gill’s mistakes to help him succeed in Test.
“He has somebody in the dressing room who changed my game: Rahul Dravid. I don’t know if he will watch this broadcast, but go and spend time with Gill and do the same stuff he talked to me about. Get him to hit the ball on the off-side, practice picking the lengths better, and rotation of the strike. Do things that will help him become a better player,” Kevin Pietersen during lunch break on on JioCinema.
How Dravid helped Pietersen?
Back in 2010, Kevin Pietersen struggled against Bangladeshi spinners. The England batter reached out to Rahul Dravid, who was his teammate in Royal Challengers Bangalore. Pietersen sent an email to Dravid, seeking help to play spin on turning slow and low tracks.
“One good practice is to bat against Swann and Monty without pads or with just knee pads (maybe not a day before a game!). When you have no pads it will force you, sometimes painfully, to get the bat forward of the pads and will force you to watch the ball,” a section of mail Dravid sent to Pietersen read.
And it helped. Pietersen had a great tour of India in 2012, scoring 338 runs in seven innings. Immensely grateful to Dravid, Pietersen dedicated the excerpt to him in his book KP: The Autobiography.
“Dravid wrote me the most beautiful email, explaining the art of playing spin and ever since then it was a whole new world. The key point was looking for the length as soon as the ball was delivered – wait for the spinner and make your decision,” Kevin Pietersen said on Sky Sports in 2017.
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