IND vs SL 2023: We need to be patient with these young kids, says India coach Rahul Dravid

Indian head coach Rahul Dravid feels they need to be patient with the young team after the team suffered a 16-run loss against Sri Lanka in the second T20I at the Maharashtra Cricket Association Stadium, Pune on Thursday.

India’s young pace battery of Arshdeep Singh, Shivam Mavi, and Umran Malik leaked a total of 138 runs in the 10 overs they bowled collectively. The Indian team bowled a total of seven no-balls, out of which Singh overstepped on five occasions.

The home team conceded 27 runs on free hits and failed to bowl in the right areas. Dravid feels they will have games like these as they don’t have much much experience.

“Nobody wants to bowl wides (no-balls) in any format. Especially in T20s, they can hurt you. We need to be patient with lot of these young kids. There are a lot of youngsters playing in this team, especially our bowling attack. They are young kids; they will have games like these at times,” said Dravid.

Dravid went on to add they need to be patient with the young players and expects them to get better with more experience.

“We all need to be patient with them and understanding. Of course, they are working hard and we keep trying to help them, support them technically and also just creating the right environment for them to be able to get the best out of their skills,” Dravid added.

Dravid revealed it is not easy to learn the job at the top level. The former Indian batter added the focus is on the WTC final and the ODI World Cup and thus they can try the young players in the shortest format of the game.

“It’s tough. It’s not easy learning in international cricket and you have to learn on the job. The good thing is, with the focus on the ODI World Cup and the World Test Championship, at least in the T20Is, it gives us an opportunity to try out a lot of the younger guys,” said Dravid.

Speaking on the dew conditions towards the fag end of the game, Dravid said, “Not really. The amount of dew that was there at the backend. It’s just that we lost a few wickets. If we had a few wickets in hand, we got close anyway. There was a lot of dew. They couldn’t bowl their spinners out because of the ball being wet. The decision was fine,” Dravid added.

The third T20I will be played at Rajkot on Thursday.