Rahul Dravid's letter to Kevin Pietersen on how to play spin

Rahul Dravid and Kevin Pietersen

In his book KP: The Autobiography, Kevin Pietersen reveals a special letter that he received from Indian batting legend Rahul Dravid.

The former English middle-order batsman and Dravid were teammates for Royal Challengers Bangalore during the second and third seasons of the Indian Premier League (IPL). It was during that time, that Pietersen sought the help of the Bangalorean on how to play spin.

In May-June 2010, during Bangladesh’s tour to England, Pietersen was twice dismissed by Shakib Al-Hasan and was also found wanting against Abdur Razzak, both left-arm spinners. The South African-born batsman’s struggle against left-arm orthodox spin was well documented at the time.

In the letter, Dravid tells Pietersen to practice without pads against spin in the nets, so that he uses his bat more. He also talks about how the former English captain is a good player of spin despite all the criticism around.

Through out the letter, the former India number three remains his humble self and reminds Pietersen that his advice might not turn out well.

The advice seemed to have helped KP as a couple of years later thhough, he scored a brilliant 151 against a Sri Lankan side that included left-arm spinner Rangana Herath to win England a Test in Colombo. He repeated his heroics in Mumbai later that year, hitting a sublime 186 against India, which is often considered as his greatest innings as it was on a pitch that was producing venomous spin.

The entire letter can be found in the following tweet:

Rahul Dravid's email to @KP24 on how to play spin. #Priceless pic.twitter.com/fs1JtiE3Y6

— Freddie Wilde (@fwildecricket) October 22, 2014