IND vs SA: Ruturaj Gaikwad Showed In One Particular Innings The Quality And Skill He Has Got – Rahul Dravid

India National Cricket Team head coach Rahul Dravid was not at all disappointed with the performance of young opener Ruturaj Gaikwad in the five-match T20I series against South Africa and he said that the young opener is a quality player.

In the five-match T20I series against South Africa, Ruturaj Gaikwad smashed only one half-century, which came in the 3rd T20I in Visakhapatnam. Other than his half-century, Gaikwad registered the scores of 23, 1, 5 and 10.

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Meanwhile, Dravid said that he is not disappointed with the performance of any Indian player in the series against South Africa.

“I don’t like to judge people after one series. Everyone who got the opportunity truly deserved it. In this format, you are going to have some good and bad games. Shreyas (Iyer) showed a lot of intent and played positively for us, Ruturaj (Gaikwad) showed in one particular innings the quality and skill he has got, and in T20s, you can have the odd game where it goes up and down a little bit. So, we are not disappointed with anyone,” Dravid told IANS.

Dravid added that they were looking to play an attacking brand of cricket in the South Africa T20I series and there is clarity on the kind of cricket the Indian team will play in future games.

“As a group, we were looking to play a positive and attacking brand of cricket. And, when you try and do that at times, it is not always going to come off. But we are certainly clear about the kind of cricket we want to play,” said Dravid.

Rishabh Pant is a young captain, growing as a leader – Rahul Dravid

India’s head coach further talked about Rishabh Pant, who led India in the South Africa series in the absence of Rohit Sharma and KL Rahul, and said that the young captain is growing as a leader.

“To bring a team back from 0-2 down and to level it at 2-2 and give us a chance to win was good. Captaincy is not about wins and losses only. He (Pant) is a young captain, growing as a leader. It is too early to judge him and you don’t want to do that after one series.

“It was nice to see he has got opportunities to lead, keep, and bat. He had a lot of load on him but gaining from that experience and credit to him for ensuring that we went from 0-2 down to 2-2. I just don’t want to be critical. In the middle overs, you need people to play slightly attacking brand of cricket, to take the game on a little more. Sometimes it’s very hard to judge based on two or three games,” said Dravid.

Dravid added that Pant is an integral part of the Indian team as a left-handed batter is important in the middle order.

“I think he had a pretty good IPL in terms of strike rate even though it might not have looked good on averages. In IPL, he looked to move up a little bit (in terms of the batting average) and probably three years ago he was on those numbers. We are hoping that we can get those numbers from him at the international level.

“In the process, he might go wrong in a few games but he remains an integral part of our batting line-up with the power he has and the fact that he is a left-hander is important to us in the middle overs, he played some good knocks,” added Dravid.

Also Read: “When I Look Back On The 8 Months, South Africa Was A Bit Of A Disappointment” – Rahul Dravid

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