Dravid points out areas where Padikkal, Rana need improvement after T20I series loss

India head coach Rahul Dravid said that the new comers in the team have to understand that "not all wickets are going to be flat" and they need to develop the art of scoring on challenging wickets like the ones offered in the final two Twenty20 Internationals (T20I) in Colombo. India lost the three-match series 2-1 on Thursday.

India were without their eight first-choice players because of COVID-related isolation. The visitors handed T20I debut to as many as five players. Dravid observed that the players like Devdutt Padikkal and Nitesh Rana struggled on the R.Premadasa track where the ball was not coming on to their bat.

"I am not disappointed as they are young. They are going to learn and get better only when they are exposed to these kind of conditions and quality of bowling. Sri Lankan team's bowling attack is an international bowling attack," Dravid was quoted, as saying in an interview while assessing the overall performance in the series.

The former India captain stressed once again on challenging tracks, saying pitches in domestic circuit have become easier to bat on as compared to his times.

"They would have liked to score a few more runs. They now have an opportunity to reflect that not all wickets are going to be flat. We need to find ways to scrap and score 130, 140 on these wickets. It's really a good learning as they are all young players. This is a great opportunity to reflect on these performances and may be come up with some slightly better strategies. Let me be fair, we don't get these kind of conditions very often in T20 cricket but when you do, I think, you have responsibility to play slightly better.

I think the wickets in domestic cricket may have got better - one thing that is probably different when I was sort of starting while growing up the wickets tended to turn a little bit more. Honestly some of the wickets we used to play used to be under-prepared but wickets have got a bit better in Ranji Trophy which is great. I don't think the talent is missing it's just that you need experience to figure out a few more stroke making options in these kinds of pitches," the India coach explained further.

Dravid, who is also the chief of the National Cricket Academy (NCA) in Bangalore, also pointed out that apart from Shikhar Dhawan, they were not left with another experienced player who could have blended with the youngsters in the team.

"It needs time and experience and you need to blood young players with experienced players so that you have that cushion. Obviously, last couple of games, we didn't have that cushion, most of guys other than Shikhar were young," said Dravid.

The former batsman also heaped praise on India's spin quartet of Kuldeep Yadav, Yuzvendra Chahal, Varun Chakravarthy and Rahul Chahar.

"We have a really good crop of spinners who are coming through. Heartening to see how our four spinners performed and even stand bye spinner Sai Kishore is a really good bowler," said Dravid.

Meanwhile, Dravid, who also kept wickets on a number of occasions during his playing days, defended the 'keeper-batsman Sanju Samson, who has now failed in nine straight T20Is since last year.

"It was not the easiest pitch to bat on. In ODIs, he got a chance and scored 46. He was batting well in the first T20 but last couple of wickets (pitches) were challenging. I guess yeah, if you look back at the series, we will be a little disappointed. Having said that not only Sanju but a lot of young guys in this team are talented kids, and we need to patient with them," added Dravid.

Dravid, who travelled with Team India in the absence of Ravi Shastri, praised skipper Dhawan and his deputy Bhuvneshwar Kumar for maintaining a good team environment in difficult times.

"Shikhar, Bhuvi, the leadership group for the environment that they created and terrific energy that they created, I can't fault them on their effort," said Dravid.

Impressed by the fact that the young Indian team was able to live a cooped up life in a bio-bubble for 45 days with only six matches to play, Dravid said, "We have been in bubble for 45 days and we have played only six matches in those days, for a variety of reasons. The Sri Lankan boys picked up COVID-19 after their England tour and whole series got postponed. It has been challenging. The boys have been in quarantine and they have been in bubble and they have only seen hotels, even in hotels, certain parts of hotels. It's credit to all boys in the manner they maintained their spirit and worked really hard, I can't fault any of the boys for their effort."