Kevin Pietersen wants ECB to 'print' Rahul Dravid's email and give it to England batsmen Dom Sibley and Zak Crawley
Former England batsman Kevin Pietersen wants the England and Wales Cricket Board to ‘print’ an email from Rahul Dravid on how to bat effectively against spinners in the subcontinent and give it to England batsmen Zak Crawley and Dom Sibley.
Pietersen’s comments came after both Crawley and Sibley – England openers for the second Test against Sri Lanka - got out cheaply in the final session of Day 2 to Sri Lanka left-arm spinner Lasith Embuldenya.
Pietersen first took to Twitter to and said Dravid’s email had changed his game against spin-bowling. “Crawley & Sibley need to go find the email that Dravid sent me about playing spin. Changed my game!” he wrote.
The flamboyant England batsmen then went on to share a copy of Dravid’s email to him.
“Hey @englandcricket, print this and give it to Sibley & Crawley. They can call me to discuss it at length if they want...!” wrote Pietersen in his next tweet.
In the email, Dravid advised Pietersen to bat without the front pad against Graeme Swann and Monty Panesar to avoid committing to the frontfoot blindly.
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Towards the end of the email, Dravid also says that Pietersen is a ‘really good player’ and he should believe in his abiitties and try to pick up the length from the spinner’s hand.
Meanwhile in the second Test against Sri Lanka in Galle, captain Joe Root joined Yorkshire teammate Jonny Bairstow with the side in trouble at five for two and counterattacked, adding an unfinished 93 runs for the third wicket.
Root, the English captain who posted a double hundred in the first test, was unbeaten on 67 off 77 balls with 10 fours while Bairstow was on 24.
Root was the more dominant partner of the two England batsmen, using the sweep shot to good effect — both the conventional and reverse.
Sri Lanka know how crucial Root’s wicket is and they unsuccessfully reviewed a leg before wicket shout with the batsman on 39.
Earlier, Sri Lanka did well to post 381 runs having batted for five sessions.
England are leading the two-match series 1-0.
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