Ravi Shastri heaps praises on Indian youngsters for their impressive display against New Zealand

Despite a series loss against New Zealand in the ODIs, the Indian youngsters impressed heavily in the latter’s backyard with significant contributions that kept Team India afloat on the hostile Kiwi shores and even saw them bagging the all-important T20I series, a win that acted as a momentary salve for the T20 World Cup scars.

With the rain playing spoilsport in the series finale just when India tasted their first success with the ball, the series was sealed and delivered to the hosts as they secured an important lead in the curtain-raiser. ,Former Indian coach, Ravi Shastri spoke at length to Prime Video about how despite India’s defeat, the youngsters posted a pretty solid display to start asking all the right questions to the selectors for future tournaments.

Highlighting thr positives from the series, Shastri said, “Shreyas Iyer getting runs in a couple of matches, willing to stay there and willing to go through the tough period. Suryakumar of course has the potential, has the talent, and he will deliver. Washington Sundar, I thought was very good. And even Umran Malik, I like the way he bowled. There’s potential there. If he can persevere, it will be very good. All around, there was a very positive Shubman Gill at the start of the innings.”

He concluded by contextualising the importance of youngsters performing in rather alien conditions. “These conditions are tough, you don’t get these conditions often, and you don’t travel to New Zealand that often. So I think for young cricketers to come here and get this kind of exposure is excellent. The weather and the ground dimensions need to be taken into account”, added Shastri.