I want the team to get better: Rahul Dravid

India belted out a scorching display against West Indies as their batting order in the T20Is showed the exemplary brilliance that the world is used to. Even in the last game against West Indies, Rohit Sharma promoted himself down to number 4 in order to accommodate Ruturaj Gaikwad in the opening slot.

India also managed to pull off a phenomenal comeback from a below-100 score in 15 overs to a staggering 184 at the end of their 20 overs. Slowly coming out of the fire of baptism, the Indian cricketers have started taking flight.

Rahul Dravid opened up about the encounter, explaining the moves that India resorted to. “I think we need a certain level of flexibility in T20s, that again has been communicated to a lot of the players. There has been conversation around the fact that we need to be flexible, we can't be predictable. We need to sometimes have the left-right combinations,” he said.

He further added, “All the stats and data tell you the value of left-right combination, left-arm spinner to left-hand batsman - we all know that stuff. We want our players to be flexible, and that we may need to move them around, and I think they've responded really well. They want to embrace that, understand the value of that, and so, yes, certainly through that middle order, it's an area we want to improve and get better at."

Dravid was also happy with the way India has switched gears in the last two games. He cited, “Especially while batting first, we want to set good totals. Sometimes you need that flexibility when you want to take down certain bowlers or combinations or scenarios, you need to have potentially the right people batting in a really short game. Sometimes five or six balls, with the right batsman against the right bowler, can actually be the difference in the game."

“The times we live in, it's never easy," he said of the team’s flexibility. "There's a time frame where you can say we want to freeze in this team. We don't want to cast our net too wide and we don't want to restrict ourselves to 15 players as well. We saw today with Deepak [Chahar] getting injured, Suryakumar Yadav getting hit on his hand, the Covid issues we had in Ahmedabad - where we couldn't play three-four players.”

Dravid also added words about the World Cup preparations, citing, “We are pretty clear with the balance and combination we want. We are just structuring the team around it and balancing individual workloads as well. We have a fair idea between Rohit, the selectors, the management, about the kind of skills we are looking at for Australia. The guys who are in the running - we want to give players a fair chance to stake their claims also. We don't want to set ourselves in stone too early as well."

He concluded by saying, “We've learnt something this series - it's not about winning. We are happy to win - it's better to win than to lose. For me, it's been nice to see the younger guys come through. West Indies are a tough team to beat in T20 cricket. They are a very strong team. They have got people lower down the order who can take the game away from you.

"We have had to bat first twice, bowl in wet conditions twice - these are the things that tell you we are moving in the right direction. Some of the pieces are coming together. We are far from a finishing piece. We want to be really competitive in Australia and we have to execute better”, stated Dravid.