After India's comprehensive 3-0 series win against New Zealand, head coach Rahul Dravid on Sunday said he was impressed with his team's performance throughout the series but the players now have to keep their feet on the ground and to be realistic about the victory.
Rohit Sharma's fantastic fifty and a clinical bowling performance led by Axar Patel (3/9), powered India to a convincing 73-run win over New Zealand in the third and final T20I, helping the hosts complete a 3-0 clean sweep in the three-match series at the iconic Eden Gardens on Sunday.
Speaking after the win, Team India head coach said New Zealand had arrived in India immediately after a World Cup final loss and it wasn't easy for the visitors to play back-to-back matches.
"It was a really good series win. Everyone played really well right through the series. It feels good, nice to start well. We are also quite realistic. We have to keep our feet on the ground and be a bit realistic about this win. Not easy for NZ to play a World Cup final and then to turn up three days later to play three games in six days, was never going to be easy for them," said Dravid during the post-match presentation.
"Nice from our perspective but we have to learn from this series and move forward. It's a long journey ahead over the next 10 months and we'll have our share of ups and downs," he added.
The batting legend also pointed out that the emergence of young players is positive that India can take from the series.
"It's been really good to see some of the young guys come through. We have given the opportunity to some of the boys who haven't played a lot of cricket over the last few months with some of our more experienced players taking a break. We saw some of the skills available to us and we will keep building those skills as we move forward," he said.
Dravid also highlighted that the side will be much stronger when regular players come back. According to him, it's really great to have multiple options.
"With some of our players coming back in, it will definitely make the side stronger. But it's really great to see that we have got options, we can mix and match, we can look at different players at different places. It's going to be a long season from hereon till the next WC," he said.
"There's a lot of games to be played, so we have to do that with some of our players and be realistic with the amount of cricket they can play. It's nice to see people step up and do well at this stage," he added.
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