In recent times, India have shown rare signs of vulnerability. For over the past 12 years, India had been unbeaten in Tests at home, but now they have suffered defeats in two of their last three home assignments. They endured a 3–0 whitewash against New Zealand in 2024, followed by a 2–0 loss to South Africa in November 2025. These defeats have attracted huge criticism surrounding India's performance in the longest format of the game. Touching upon it, former Indian cricketer and head coach Rahul Dravid felt that the issue is not a lack of talent or intent but the lack of quality time Indian batters are getting to develop and refine their red-ball skills.
"One of the things I understood as a coach, especially the guys that play all three formats, they keep moving from one format to the other," Dravid said as quoted by ESPNcricinfo.
"There were times when we would get to a Test match three to four days before the match, and then when we start practising for the Test match, [and] when you look back at the last time that some of these guys had actually hit a red ball, it might have been four months ago or five months ago. That's become really a challenge, how do you almost find the time to be able to develop some of the skills that are hard. To play on turning tracks, or play on seaming wickets, doing that for hours and hours in a Test match is not easy. It requires skill," he said.
Dravid believes this constant switching between formats has had an unintended consequence. Moreover, Dravid pointed out that lack of adequate preparation time has also been a big factor.
"In my generation, when there were only two formats in the game, and there wasn't really the idea of franchise cricket, there were a lot of times where I would have a whole month of practicing for a Test series and I would be able to play with the red ball, and I would be able to develop my skills. Now, one of the things that has become a bit tougher in red-ball cricket is a lot of our guys who play all the three formats, or who play the amount of cricket that they are playing, sometimes don't have the time to be able to practise red-ball cricket as much," he added.