Lloyd blames poor preparation for India’s Test series debacle

“Young players especially need 3-4 four-day games before Tests and couple in between. If you are out of form,you don’t get your form in nets,” he said.

Lloyd gave the example of Virender Sehwag to drive him his point that without preparation a player howsoever big would struggle.

“You don’t get runs by walking straight in. I don’t care how good you are,you don’t get it. You are not going to run into form in Test matches. You need to get your timing right,the foot movement,picking the ball properly,” he said.

Lloyd,who led possibly the strongest cricket team ever in the history of the game in the 1970s and 80s,also criticised a few senior players for giving the series against West Indies before the England tour a complete miss.

“Those who went to the Caribbean,people like Dravid,they did well (here). You need games as you are older,you need to train harder and play more games. The mistake they made is not to have played enough games… a few of your top players should have gone to West Indies,” he said.