As England prepare for the upcoming Test series against India, former cricketer Kevin Pietersen on Saturday offered some tips for the English batsmen to tackle the spinners in the subcontinent. Pietersen in a tweet shared a letter wrote by India batting legend Rahul Dravid back in 2017 and urged the England & Wales Cricket Board (ECB) to give it to struggling duo of Dom Sibley and Zak Crawley.
Both Sibley and Crawley have been named in the England squad for the first two Tests, which is slated to start from February 5 in Chennai. The duo is currently engaged in the ongoing Test series against Sri Lanka and were found struggling against left-arm spinner Lasith Embuldeniya, with the latter manging to scalp both the batsmen in the two Tests.
Hey @englandcricket, print this and give it to Sibley & Crawley.
They can call me to discuss it at length if they want...!
pic.twitter.com/qBmArq211s— Kevin Pietersen (@KP24) January 23, 2021
Sharing two pages of the email sent to him by Dravid, Pietersen tweeted: "Hey @englandcricket, print this and give it to Sibley & Crawley. They can call me to discuss it at length if they want."
"Crawley & Sibley need to go find the email that Dravid sent me about playing spin. Changed my game," he wrote in an earlier tweet.
In his email, which was published in Pietersen's 2014 autobiography, Dravid had discussed how the England batsman should play spin.
"Against guys who bowled a bit quicker (and I grew up playing against Anil) I would look to go forward without committing or planting the front foot," Dravid had written in the email.
The Indian batting great had suggested Pietersen to practice against Graeme Swann and Monty Panesar without his pads on.
Pietersen was part of the England team that had claimed a 2–1 Test series win in India, That was the last time the touring side had tasted victory on Indian soil in the format.
with PTI inputs
