'Great to see him replicate his IPL form...made huge difference': Dravid's epic take on 3 positives from horror WI show

The T20I series in West Indies was supposed to mark the beginning of India's preparation for the T20 World Cup next year. In absence of senior players in Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli among other injured stars, Hardik Pandya, who has been touted to take over India's white-ball captaincy for quite some time now, led a new-look Men in Blue in the Caribbean, but the tourists were left stunned by a side that had failed to make the T20 World Cup last year. For the first time in 17 years, India lost a bilateral series against West Indies, going 2-3 down in the five-match contest. Despite the humiliating loss, which led to critics lashing out at the team, captain and the management, Rahul Dravid highlighted three "positive signs" from the series.

Even though it wasn't a direct question made towards Dravid in the post-match press conference in Lauderhill on Sunday after India's eight-wicket defeat in the final match, the India batting legend namedropped three players who "stood out" during the five-match series, comprising two batters and a bowler.

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Dravid was particularly in praise of Yashasvi Jaiswal, who notched up a record century on his international debut in the Test format, scoring 266 runs in three innings before being handed the cap in the T20Is as well where he scored an unbeaten 84 in India's win in the fourth T2OI. He also hailed Tilak Varma, who is now being touted by most veteran cricketers for the ODI World Cup squad. The 20-year-old, who played in all the five T20Is, did not just impress with his batting abilities, scoring a record 173 runs in four innings with a fifty, but also was stunning with his fielding efforts.

"I thought all the three guys who made debuts for us in this series stood up," Dravid said. "Yashasvi Jasiwal in the fourth game, I thought he played a very good innings. He's shown us what he can do in the IPL and it was nice to see him replicate that in international cricket.

"Tilak Varma, I thought, was really good, to come in in the middle order. He came in sometimes in very difficult situations. He plays with a lot of intent, plays very positively, looks to move the game along, fielded brilliantly throughout the series, showed us he can bowl one or two overs as well. So really positive signs from Tilak and to have that left-hander in the middle order does make a huge difference against some of the attacks that we've been playing against.

The former India captain also praised Mukesh Kumar, who was handed a debut cap across formats and is now in line for a place in the Asia Cup squad as well.

"Mukesh as well. He debuted in all the formats in this series and I thought he acquitted himself really well. His ability to bowl at the death, sometimes he was called upon to bowl against some really big, powerful, hard-hitters and he acquitted himself well for someone who was just playing his fourth or fifth game. So I think there's some real good positives in the guys who made their debuts for us and hopefully they take confidence from the series and keep learning as they go forward. They'll be going to Ireland and get a few more opportunities in the T20 format and I'm sure the more opportunities they get, they better they'll be."

The aforementioned three will next be part of the T20I series in Ireland which will be played between August 18 and 23.