On a belter where Somerset piled a combined tally of nearly 700 runs, the Indians were bowled out for 224 despite the presence of Gautam Gambhir, Dravid, Sachin Tendulkar and Yuvraj Singh.
“No issue is a minor issue,” noted Dravid when asked if the debacle against Somerset wasn’t a big issue for the side. “Nobody wants to do badly or get out early in a tour game or any game. I would never regard it as a minor issue. But also, I won’t be unduly worried about it. It can happen sometimes in a tour game, you are coming on the back of a tough tour in the West Indies where you had to work hard for runs.
“Sometimes the Test players, who play a lot of cricket, try and experiment things in tour games and play a few too many shots. That’s what we did in the tour game but that’s something we have learned from, these are lessons that we will take into Test matches,” he explained.
Asked if this was the battle between the best batting line-up and the best bowling unit in the world, Dravid answered in the negative. “I don’t like to think we are the best batting side and they are the best bowling side in the world,” he began. “Yes, we have got a strong batting line-up and the series may be decided by that context, but whether we are the best or not is open to debate.”
The right-hander didn’t find any merit in the International Cricket Council’s proposal to have a timeless final to decide the Test Championship. “I don’t think you need a timeless Test, just spice up the wicket a bit and it will be over in four days. Don’t even worry about the fifth day. I wouldn’t mind batting for three days on a flat deck but I am not sure if the bowlers are going to be queuing up for that contest! But yes, if you have a good even wicket, five days are good enough to have a result. You could drag it a bit if there’s rain and some sort interruption but generally a good wicket will give you result in five days.”
Ashish Nehra, meanwhile, joined his team-mates and trained with them. The left-arm seamer, who missed IPL 4 and the West Indies tour due to injury, is likely to train with the team to monitor his progress.