'The boys are not deflated' - Dravid

What do you do when you have a side that's inexperienced in Caribbean conditions, when your main batsmen don't get up to potential, and when your lower-order struggles? You sport an optimistic look, talk of the series loss as a "learning experience", keep your chin up and move on. Rahul Dravid isn't someone to take defeat lightly - his dejected look at the press conference said as much - but he had no qualms in spelling out the exact reasons for the stumble.

"We had them on the ropes in the second match, and we let them slip away," he observed. "That's what cost us the series in some ways, as a team we will regret having allowed them to secure victory in the second match."

But was it a time to raise the alarm? "Our batsmen haven't played well, but we must give credit to the West Indian bowlers. They have bowled well up front with the new ball, and their spinners have controlled the game in the middle overs, at the crucial stages, by not giving us singles and keeping the pressure on. We just didn't make enough runs, but this is a good experience ahead of the World Cup, and hopefully by then, we would have a found a solution to our problems."

Added to that was the fact that only two players had come on a full tour of the West Indies earlier - Dravid in 1997 and 2002 and Harbhajan Singh last time. Virender Sehwag, Yuvraj Singh, Mohammad Kaif and Ajit Agarkar - the core of this side - had played just three one-dayers here before. The rest were freshers. "A lot of our guys, and they are all young guys, haven't played here at all," Dravid continued. "The one-day games come thick and fast, and we just haven't had the time to review things. The young guys also need some time to get used to the slow wickets here. It is not an excuse. The boys are not deflated. It's not nice to lose, and no one is jumping up and down in the dressing room, but no one is disheartened either. We believe in ourselves as a group and we believe we can come back stronger. In some ways, it is a part of the journey. Sometimes, you just trip, and you have to dust yourselves up, get up and keep running."

Dravid was also handicapped by the inability of his bowlers to find rhythm. Irfan Pathan may want to forget this series - he conceded 5.5 runs an over in a pretty low-scoring series; Sreesanth was bogged down by injury and later put in a couple of patchy efforts; Munaf Patel was a far distance from being a strike weapon; and Ramesh Powar realised that flighting the ball while playing on small grounds isn't the best option. "The bowlers have tended to be a little on the shorter side," Dravid added. "They are young bowlers who haven't played here before, and they are learning from watching the West Indian bowlers, learning from the lengths they bowl. Irfan didn't strike the right length and Sreesanth wasn't swinging the old ball much."

Getting the final kick was a big problem as well. In the second game at Jamaica, Yuvraj had to battle with hardly any support; at St Kitts, they capsized; and here they suddenly stalled. "We've been successful for most of this season," said Dravid, "but we can't look away and say that we have failed for only three games. We will bat better towards the end in other conditions, when the ball comes on, but in these conditions, we have to improve. The ball gets softer towards the end, and we probably need to scale down our targets, look at getting 240-250 and put pressure on the opposition. The way to go about it is probably to look for a run a ball towards the end, not necessarily go for the big shots."

To listen to Dravid's post-match quotes, click here.