Rahul Dravid Defends 'Young' Team India After T20I Series Loss Against West Indies

Admitting that a 'few mistakes' were made, team India head coach Rahul Dravid praised 'young' team for making a strong comeback after being 0-2 down in the T20 series.

India will play Ireland next in a three-match T20 series in Rahul Dravid's absence as head coach.

Source : Getty Images

India's tour of West Indies 2023 concluded with a 3-2 series loss against the hosts in the five-match T20I series. Earlier, India defeated West Indies in two-match Tests (1-0) and three-match ODI series (2-1). The tour served as a platform to test and introduced young talent as three players made their international debut. Yashasvi Jaiswal was handed India caps in Test and T20I formats, Tilak Varma made a remarkable debut in T20Is, while senior pacer Mukesh Kumar bowled reasonably well, making his India debut across all three formats.

Admitting that a 'few mistakes' were made, team India head coach Rahul Dravid praised 'young' team for making a strong comeback after being 0-2 down in the T20 series.

“You get into any series wanting to win it. That was the first thing that we wanted to do. We didn’t tick that off. We didn’t win the series, so that was a disappointment. Other than that, there were a few young guys that we wanted to trial out.

"We gave a few debuts in this series as you would have noted. There were other people that we tried out as well in various combinations. From that perspective, there were some good positives. We can certainly look forward to the future with a lot of hope,” Dravid said.

Praising Jaiswal, Dravid commented:

“I think all the three guys who made their debuts for us in this series stood up. Yashasvi Jaiswal, in that fourth game, he played a really good innings at the top of the order. He showed his ability. He’s shown us what he can do in the IPL and it was nice for him to be able to replicate that on the international scene.”

Praising Varma, Dravid commented:

"Tilak Varma was really good. To come in the middle-order and sometimes in quite difficult situations, but every time he played with a lot of intent, played very positively, looked to move the game along. He fielded brilliantly throughout the series, showed us that he can bowl one or two overs as well, so really positive signs from Tilak," he said.

"To have that left-hander in the middle does make a huge difference against some of the attacks that we are playing against,” the 50-year-old elaborated.