IND vs NZ | Have to keep our feet on the ground and be realistic, says Rahul Dravid after India's T20I series victory

India registered a resounding 73-run victory against T20 World Cup runners-up on Sunday in Kolkata, and swept the three-match T20I series 3-0. The white-ball series against the Blackcaps was the first assignment for Rahul Dravid as head coach of Team India, whereas Rohit Sharma also started his captaincy stint as a full-time skipper of the Men in Blue in T20Is. 

Meanwhile, Rahul Dravid stated that the team should not read too much into the overall outcome as bigger events are down the line in the next 12 months. He further backed the New Zealand team and stated that it was a hectic schedule for the Black Caps after the T20 World Cup final.

"We have to keep our feet on the ground and be realistic, especially with bigger things down the line in the next 12 months. It's not easy for New Zealand to play a World Cup final, turn up three days later, and play three games in six days. We knew it was never going to be easy on them," Dravid told Star Sports after the third T20I in Kolkata.

During the T20I series against the Black Caps, India also gave debut caps to Venkatesh Iyer and Harshal Patel, who earned their maiden international call-up after exuberant performances in IPL 2021 . Dravid further lauded the youngsters in the squad, and stated that the greatest takeaway for the management was to see the performance of the freshers in the team.

"It's been great to see the younger guys come through, we've given opportunity to some of the guys who haven't played too much cricket in the last few months with the seniors taking rest," Dravid said. "The greatest takeaway for us is to see the skills available to us. We need to continue developing those skills, " explained Dravid.

Some of the key players from both teams were rested for the series as part of workload management. Speaking on India’s long season, Dravid stated that the team is likely to continue the rest and rotate policy to take of the pressure from the players.

"It's really nice that we have options," Dravid said. "We can mix and match. Its going to be a long season, lots of games to be played till the next World Cup and we need to do that [rest and rotate] with some of our players and be realistic about how much cricket needs to be played," he added.

India will lock horns with New Zealand in the first Test match in Kanpur, which is scheduled to begin on November 25.