To view the progress of dd we can use the pv (pipeviewer) program.
apt-get install pv

I saw a usage example on other sites but they didn’t work from me
dd if=test.img | pv | of=/dev/sdx bs=4M This just returned 0B 0:00:00 [ 0B/s] [<=>

This is what worked for me (note the use of dd again after the pv pipe)
dd if=test.img | pv | dd of=/dev/sdx bs=4M

3921920+0 records inMB/s] [ <=> ] 3921920+0 records out 2008023040 bytes (2.0 GB) copied, 234.248 s, 8.6 MB/s 1.87GB 0:03:54 [8.17MB/s] [ <=> ] 0+16458 records in 0+16458 records out 2008023040 bytes (2.0 GB) copied, 283.842 s, 7.1 MB/s