Rahul Dravid backs Virat Kohli as long-term Test captain

NEW DELHI: Batting legend Rahul Dravid has backed Virat Kohli to lead the Indian cricket team on a long- term basis, describing him as the ideal leader around whom the country can plan its Test future.

Kohli led the Indian side in two matches in the just-concluded Test series in Australia, which they lost 0-2, but Dravid said that the BCCI can keep faith in him as he can lead the team and also perform individually.

"I think it's early days for Virat. But he's shown that he can lead. One of the biggest pluses for me was his own performance in this series. Now we know that Virat's a shoo-in candidate for the captaincy, he's someone whom Indian cricket can plan long-term with, and that's what they should do," Dravid said.

"The worst thing would have been, for someone like Virat, who was the obvious successor to Mahendra Singh Dhoni, to have not performed and not been sure of his own place, which was one of the concerns after the tour of England. But that's not the case," he told ESPNcricinfo.

Dravid has no doubt about the current India batting line-up doing well in all conditions but said that the bowling department has been a let down in the recent past in overseas conditions, leading to the country's nosedive in Test rankings.

In the wake of India's 0-2 series defeat in Australia and their slide to number seven in Test rankings, Dravid said that the country needs a long-term approach to improve the overseas performance of the bowlers.

"The bowling has been a big let-down, and I think if you are not consistently bowling well, if you don't have world-class bowlers in both pace and spin, then you're going to slide down the rankings because you're not going to produce results," said the 42-year-old former captain.