India will have a chance in England if seamers fire: Rahul Dravid

Bengaluru, July 5: Rahul Dravid was at the helm when India won a Test series in England in 2007 and the former India captain said the latest series between the two sides starting in August could be an interesting one.

Dravid said India have a good crop of fast bowlers at the moment and if they manage to stay fit the visitors will have a good chance to come up trumps in the five-match series.

DRAVID IN ICC HALL OF FAME

"It's all about the bowling. You need 20 wickets to win and if you keep on having to field for 140 overs, it will take its toll eventually. We had a good seam attack in 2007 and kept them fit, and India at the moment has another good crop of seamers, so if they stay fit they'll have a chance," Dravid told The Times, London, in an interview.

Since that epochal victory in 2007, India's performance in England have been dismal. Under MS Dhoni, they lost 4-0 in 2011, the last series of Dravid in England and he was the only Indian batsman to excel in that series. In 2014, India conceded the five-match series 3-1 after drawing at Nottingham and winning at Lord's.

The current skipper Virat Kohli went through horrors in 2014, struggling to cope with the swing of James Anderson and Stuart Broad. But Anderson and Broad are now not the force they were four years ago and Dravid felt the pace duo will require some assistance from the pitch to make an impact.

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Dravid also opined that England batting could be a bit brittle owing to its inexperience in the longest format.

"It will be interesting to see what pitches England prepare, because with (James) Anderson and (Stuart) Broad at the stage that they are at, England may feel that they need a bit of help from the surface. Equally, England's batting in Tests has been a bit fragile of late. So it should be a very interesting series," said Dravid.

Now the India 'A' coach, Dravid said cricket has transformed into a more attacking game than in his days.

"It's a more attacking game for sure, and I would say generally around the world that the ability to strike a ball is better than the ability to tough it out on a green seamer, say. When we were growing up the ability to leave the ball outside off-stump was career-defining. Not now. That's part of the reason we've expanded our A team fixture list, to give them more varied first-class exposure," said Dravid.