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'You Know it's Young, Developing Team': Rahul Dravid Defends India After T20I Series Loss

Vishal Mehra

image-llaabgs8Hardik Pandya-led India lost T20Is 3-2 [Source: Twitter]

The series decider between India and West Indies at Florida ended with the Rovman Powell-led side handing Team India a thumping eight-wicket defeat, thus clinching the 5-match series 3-2 on Sunday.

India led by stand-in captain Hardik Pandya, across the five T20Is failed to make much impression, apart from the fourth encounter, where Shubman Gill and Yashasvi Jaiswal shone.

With Indian management opting to rest veteran players, several new names and fringe players made the cut, out of whom only Tilak Varma, Kuldeep Yadav, and Arshdeep Singh stood up at crucial junctures. 

Head coach Rahul Dravid, speaking after India's series loss, defended his side, and mentioned how they are still young and developing.

As quoted by ESPNCricinfo, Dravid did, however, pin the blame on batting, which has been a running issue for the Indian side for a long time now, and provided insight into the plans heading into World Cup 2023.

Here's what Dravid said

"We made few mistakes in this T20I series against West Indies, in first couple of games and even in final match today. We didn't bat Well. But that can happen, you know it's young team, it's developing team. There are times we have go through ups & downs.

Regarding the squad we had in the Caribbean, we probably did not have the flexibility to change the combinations. But I think in the future, we can look at specific areas to get better – depth in the batting is one area we are trying to address. But we also do not want to weaken our bowling attack to ensure our batting goes bigger. We have challenges on that front, and we need to work on that.” 

Dravid, in particular, lauded Tilak Varma, who scored 173 runs in his maiden T20I series for India. 

"Tilak Verma was really good. Playing debut series, coming in middle order and tough situation and played well in everytime is amazing. He played lot of intent and positive throughout the series, his fielding was brilliant & showed us he can bowl as well".

Dravid's next international assignment will be Asia Cup 2023, where the coach confirmed that few key players for India will return from injury. The Asia Cup 2023 begins on August 30.