Youngsters need to take charge, says Rahul Dravid

The great wall of the Indian cricket team has recently said in an interview that he would have liked to end his ODI career on a winning note. The ex-Indian captain, who played the last of his 344 ODIs in Cardiff on Friday, has no complaints. But he said, “To be able to finish off like this in some ways was nice but obviously the result was a bit disappointing.”

The player further said that there were lots of things that went wrong for Indian in England tour. He said, “Credit must be given to England for the way they played. For us, it’s a combination of things that went wrong. It’s not easy to pinpoint. You should not take the credit away from the England team. You can always find faults. But we must give credit to the opposition for the way they played.”

The wall then told media that there are important lessons that the team could learn from the recent debacle. “We need to be better prepared. Obviously there were a lot of injuries that didn’t help our cause. It’s not easy when you have some of your top bowlers injured, especially for a big tour like England, because you need experience there,” he said.

Dravid doesn’t regret quitting ODIs. “I had a long ODI career and I just felt that the time was right (to call it a day),” he said. He believes the time is ripe for the youngsters to assume bigger responsibilities.

“There are so many talented youngsters like Virat Kohli, Ajinkya Rahane, Rohit Sharma and Suresh Raina. You do realise that they are the future of Indian team. It’s time they took charge,” he said.