"We are not going to make knee-jerk reactions on people" - Rahul Dravid on Shreyas Iyer and Ruturaj Gaikwad after IND vs SA series

Team India head coach Rahul Dravid has defended his decision of not dropping Shreyas Iyer and Ruturaj Gaikwad during India's five-T20I series against South Africa. He asserted that India won't show "knee-jerk reactions" to bad form of youngsters in the shortest format in which performance fluctuations are common.

Iyer, after a bumper series against West Indies earlier in the year and a decent IPL 2022 campaign, could only score 94 runs in four innings. His best two knocks, a 36 and a 40, came in losing causes. Gaikwad, meanwhile, carried his inconsistency from the IPL to his first full T20I series, managing just 96 runs despite a best score of 57.

But speaking after the series, Dravid reiterated his stance of not judging players over a few games. He listed the positives from both batters' performances, saying the team understands that their plans for each player won't "come off always".

Dravid said:

"We are not going to make knee-jerk reactions on people like that. As you've seen, I don't like judging people after one series or one game. Every one of the guys who got an opportunity here truly deserved it.

"And in this format of the game, you are going to have some good games and some bad games. I think Shreyas, in the early part [of the series] on a lot of tricky wickets, showed a lot of intent and played really positive for us. Ruturaj showed in one particular innings what's the quality and skill he's got."

He added:

"And in 20-20, you can have the odd games where your form and performance go up and down. So, obviously, we are not very disappointed in anyone.

"As a group, we wanted to play a certain brand of positive and attacking brand of cricket right from the beginning and we knew when you try and do that it doesn't come off always. But we are certainly clear on the kind of cricket we want to play."

Although Shreyas will still be in India's plans, he's almost certainly fallen behind Suryakumar Yadav in the pecking order for the No. 4 spot in the batting lineup. Meanwhile, the upcoming two-T20I series against Ireland will be crucial to Gaikwad's chances of getting a role in the squad for the T20 World Cup.

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We are looking to finalize 18-20 players as soon as possible: Rahul Dravid

Dravid also stated that India are looking to narrow down their talent pool to 18-20 players for the World Cup "as soon as possible". This might mean fewer chances for fringe players and more appearances for the likes of Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli, who have been rested for the series' against South Africa and Ireland.

Dravid said:

"Certainly, as you come closer and closer to events you want to be able to form up your final squad. If not, you want to have some contingencies... Obviously, we can only take 15 to the World Cup but you want to ensure that you have brought it down to 18-20 players and be sort of clear on what kind of squad you are looking to take.

"There might be changes due to injury or a few other things that are beyond your control but yeah, certainly we are looking to firm up that as soon as possible. Whether that'll happen in the next series or in the series after that, it's hard to tell but we are looking to do that as quickly as possible."

The Ireland tour will commence on June 26 at The Village, Malahide.

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