Spell of trouble for Arshdeep Singh

PTI

Pune, January 6

India head coach Rahul Dravid has called for patience as future stars find their feet in international cricket, adding that the youngsters are on a learning curve.

India conceded seven no-balls and gave away plenty of runs off free hits — the penalties for no balls plus free hits cost India 27 runs, which is 11 more than the margin of defeat.

Arshdeep Singh overstepped three times in a row in the second over of the innings, becoming the first Indian bowler to bowl a hat-trick of no balls in T20Is. He went on to set a new record for bowling the most number of no balls in a T20I by an Indian.

Dravid was quick to defend Arshdeep and the young bowling group for the inconsistency, explaining that experience will yield results. "Nobody wants to bowl wides and no-balls in any format of the game, but especially in the T20 format of the game,” Dravid said. “The young kids will have games like this at times, and I think we all need to be patient with them..."

In the post-match presentation, captain Hardik Pandya had been less forgiving. "You cannot give no-balls as freebies," Pandya said. "You can give away runs, you can get away with everything else. He (Arshdeep) has been having a good run, but in the past as well he has bowled a couple of no balls. It's not about blaming but it is simple cricket. In world cricket, or any T20 cricket you play, no ball is a crime. Not to be too hard on him but at the same time he needs to go back and see that these are the basic errors which he should not be making at this level.”

Inexperience

Dravid felt inexperience was one of the main reasons for India's 16-run defeat. The former India captain also pointed out that the visitors had a pretty sorted playing XI, while the hosts fielded a completely different side than the one which played the T20 World Cup less than two months back.

"They (youngsters in the team) are very skilful, but as they are learning, it's a tough (job). It's not easy learning in international cricket and you have to learn on the job. So, we've got to have a little bit of patience with these guys," Dravid said.

He said the team was in the rebuilding phase and the youngsters will be handled patiently and will continue to get support from the team management, hinting it could be the end of the road for the likes of Virat Kohli, Rohit Sharma and KL Rahul.

"For us, it was a slightly different scenario (in the T20I series against Sri Lanka) in the sense that from the last game we played against England in the semifinal of the World Cup, we've probably only 3-4 boys in the playing XI (now). So, we are in a slightly different stage of looking at the next cycle of T20 (World Cup). So, a slightly younger team," he said.

With the focus shifting to the 50-over World Cup in India, Dravid feels it is the right time to give as many opportunities to youngsters as possible. India are fielding a new-look side comprising youngsters including Shivam Mavi, Umran Malik, Shubman Gill and Rahul Tripathi.

"The good thing is this year we have the (50-over) World Cup. Because a lot of focus will be on the 50-over World Cup, and the World Test Championship, at least the T20 games that we have, it probably gives us the opportunity to try out a lot of the younger guys," he said. "We all need to be patient with them and we need to be understanding that games like this can happen."

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