Despite being in control for the majority, Team India eventually suffered an embarrassing 28-run defeat to England in the first Test in Hyderabad. India had a 100 run+ lead after the first innings but failed to capitalise on the advantage as they were outplayed completely in the second innings by Ben Stokes-led England. India had a target of 231 to chase but could only muster 202 runs with most young batters failing to shine at a crucial stage. 

3 things you need to know

• India eventually suffered a 28-run defeat to England in the first Test
• India had a target of 231 to chase but could only muster 202 runs
• Young batters again failed to shine for India in testing conditions

These guys play a lot of white-ball cricket but not First-Class cricket: Rahul Dravid

Yashasvi Jaiswal, Shubman Gill, Shreyas Iyer, and Srikar Bharat were the selected as being the young stars of Indian cricket. They have, however, failed to score runs in testing conditions and now even head coach Rahul Dravid has highlighted the huge flaw in their techniques. Dravid talked about how Indian youngsters are not playing enough First-Class cricket to iron out the problems, rather focussing on limited-overs cricket. 

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Such has been Indian senior team's calender that some of the younger players hardly get time to play first-class cricket. Dravid thought the young batsmen's minimal game time in First-Class was behind their travails.

"We've to get better as a lot of players are quite young. A lot of these guys do play a lot of white-ball cricket and maybe don't get a lot of time to play First-Class cricket. So, they're learning and I think they're getting there," Dravid said.

However, Dravid said the failure of some of the batsmen to convert that start did hurt India in the first innings.

India were bowled out for 420 in their first dig, and the Bengaluru man felt that they were probably 70-80 runs short.

"I thought we left probably 70 runs on the board in the first innings. Conditions were good to bat on day two and got some good starts but we didn’t really capitalise. We didn't get a 100, you know, a really big hundred. The second innings is always going to be challenging," he elaborated.

Keeping faith in batters

The former India captain, however, said the team can make a turnaround and looked forward to a keenly contested series.

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"Batsmen have bailed us out in a few games, in some close games that we've had recently. But not this time but a great series to look forward to now. We've fallen behind but we have to show some character and look forward to that.

"I thought 190 was a really good lead but then again, not many teams will come in and score 420 in the third innings in India and not many players will make 196," he signed off. 

(with PTI inputs)