Kevin Pietersen motivates openers Sibley & Crawley with this treasured memory of Dravid

Former English skipper Kevin Pietersen has come forward with an important piece of advice for Test openers Dom Sibley and Zak Crawley ahead of the upcoming four-match Test series against India that gets underway on February 5. 

Both Sibley and Crawley will be playing in India for the first time and Pietersen who is vastly experienced when it comes to playing on Indian and sub-continent wickets has advised the opening duo of how they need to tackle India's lethal spin attack in their own backyard. 

However, what has really stood out here is that KP has forwarded the screenshot of an e-mail that he had received from former Indian skipper Rahul Dravid during his playing days.

'Call me to discuss it': Kevin Pietersen

Taking to the micro-blogging site, the 2010 T20 World Cup winner forwarded a screenshot of Dravid's message after which he tagged England Cricket urging them to print and give it to Dominic Sibley and Zak Crawley. At the same time, the South African-born cricketer has also made it crystal clear that the English Test openers can call him to discuss it at length if they want.

READ:  R Ashwin Reveals How India Succeeded In Breaching Australia's Fortress To Rewrite History

Rahul Dravid's advice to Kevin Pietersen

This message dates back to the last decade when Pietersen was struggling with spin while England had toured Bangladesh back in 2010. Rahul Dravid and Kevin Pietersen got to know each other well after the duo played for the IPL franchise Royal Challengers Bangalore. KP was one of the best batsmen during his playing days.

READ: Alex Hales Shifts His Focus Towards BBL10, 'not Thinking' Of England Comeback

During England's tour of Bangladesh in 2010, the 'Three Lions' had played a practice match prior to the Test series where Pietersen had a forgettable outing as he could only manage to score 2 and 20 in both the innings and he had lost his wickets to spinners on both occasions. They were Shakib Al Hasan and Abdur Razzak respectively.

The veteran all-rounder definitely wanted to improve and therefore, he decided to seek advice from arguably the best in the business, Rahul Dravid about how to play spin. Dravid, who is also one of the gentlemen of world cricket obliged and wrote a big note to the former English skipper on how to tackle spinners effectively. 

READ: In Rahane's Address To The Team After Gabba Victory, Kuldeep & Karthik Get Special Mention

Rahul Dravid's words of wisdom for KP

Here's what Dravid had asked Pietersen to follow in order to counter spinners in the sub-continent.

“One good practice is to bat against Swann and Monty without pads or with just knee pads (maybe not a day before a game!). When you have no pads it will force you, sometimes painfully, to get the bat forward off the pads and will force you to watch the ball. Also, the leg will be less keen to push out without any protection."

“My coach would tell me you should never need pads to play spin!! Watch the ball and trust yourself. Don’t let anyone tell you that you can’t play spin, I have seen you and you can."