Former captain Rahul Dravid, while praising India’s strength-in-depth in limited-overs, said that the Test side were still in the middle of creating a talent pool, The Week reported.

The past month has seen Indian cricket’s fortunes fluctuate in the extreme across two different formats. While Virat Kohli’s Test side lost 1-4 in England, the One-day International side, under Rohit Sharma, went on to lift the Asia Cup in the United Arab Emirates.

“There is now a path for people who do well in the Ranji Trophy,” Dravid said. “I definitely feel that in white-ball cricket we have lot of depth, largely due to the amount of white-ball cricket that is played. In red-ball cricket, we have talent and decent backups, but again it is a work in progress.”

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“Players now have to juggle between three formats and may not be getting to have as much red- ball time and conditions.”

The India A coach also batted for more shadow matches along with the senior team on tours. Karun Nair and Rishabh Pant were brought in midway through the England tour. “A team programmes are sometimes a bit more complicated than a usual series. This is where the BCCI is doing a good job – trying to work with us. We need other boards to agree, [too].”

Another widely debated topic was the lack of practice matches ahead of tour. Dravid called fore a slight tweak with schedules. “I think that needs to change. I benefited hugely from having proper First-Class games. Maybe schedules have changed and things are more complicated, but there is no doubt that a couple of First-Class games before any Test tour is only going to help. I found this 14 playing 14 [rotation system] started happening towards the end of my career. I did not like those games as a player.”

“Work constantly needs to happen. It is not a one-time thing or a two-year thing. I think it is important to tighten the process or programme that exists at U-19 and A team levels. Make it more robust. Make sure there are opportunities every year.”