Every experience is a learning one: Rahul Dravid

The Indian colts conceded the U19 World Cup courtesy of a narrow loss to the West Indies. Apart from the shocking loss, the win streak of 16 matches was broken. Rahul Dravid, the coach of the famed U19 side, however, seemed surprisingly upbeat.

“It’s tough for a lot of these young kids but it’s hopefully a start of the journey for them. Every experience is a learning one. We’ve tasted a lot of success as a team, it’s only the first match we’ve lost and unfortunately, for us it was the biggest game. But, there’s learning in everything. I think in their long journeys as cricketers they are going to face a lot of ups and downs, see a lot of success, hopefully, face disappointments as well. Hopefully, we can learn from it. If we can learn some lessons from it and if they can go on to become better cricketers and better people, that’s really the purpose of the tournament,” Dravid said in an exclusive interview to Cricwizz.

When asked whether the side was vulnerable to pace bowling, Dravid said,” I think you’ve got to give credit where it’s due. I’d like to give credit to the West Indian bowlers. They (West Indies pacers) bowled really well. They bowled really good line and lengths. They maintained the pressure right through the game.

“Also, I think the fact that we lost too many wickets in the first 15-20 overs. That allowed them to bowl well. When we look back at the game, we probably could have batted much better in the beginning. There were a few soft dismissals, there was carelessness. But really proud of the way the boys came back and fought and defending 146. To take that game to the last over, to fight the way they did really made me sitting outside very proud,” said Dravid.

When asked about the experience gained overall and as a coach, Dravid went on to say,” I think it’s been a terrific experience when I reflect on it, I don’t just reflect on this tournament, just the three months I’ve been with these boys. We started in 1st week of Nov. For them they started with their inter-state matches in Oct, we had a domestic tournament in 1st week of Nov and had a tournament in Calcutta where we played a tri-series with Bangladesh and Afghanistan. We went to Sri Lanka and played England and Sri Lanka.

There’s an incredible desire to improve, a desire to keep getting better and keep learning. That’s been the real positive. There’s a lot of passion for the game. I think it’s now really about being smart and figuring out what are the skills required. You’ve got to keep improving; you’ve got to keep getting better. You have to challenge yourself, you have to push yourself and learn quickly because FC cricket is a tough environment and the last thing you want is for some of them to fall behind,” said Dravid.

Dravid also went on to state that the win will certainly be a morale-boost for the West Indies with the senior side in turmoil. He also went on to commend the pace bowling of the side.