When the India U19 team left for the ICC U19 World Cup in Bangladesh, head coach Rahul Dravid had set a two-point agenda. He wanted young Indian players to do well in the tournament, but didn’t want them to stop at that. Knowing fully well that the road ahead is full of challenges, the batting great had stressed on the need to learn from the experience and improve further as cricketers. India’s glorious run of five straight wins came to an end in the final with West Indies securing a five-wicket win to win their maiden title. After the match, Dravid spoke to the media and shared his thoughts on various topics. Excerpts from Dravid’s post-match interaction. On his message for the boys after the final It's tough for a lot of these young kids, but it's hopefully a start of the journey for them. Every experience is a learning. We've tasted lots of success as a team, it's only the first match we've lost and unfortunately for us, it was the biggest game. I think in their long journeys as cricketers, they are going to face a lot of ups and downs, see lots of success and face disappointments as well. If we can learn some lessons from it and if they can go on to become better cricketers and better people, that's really the purpose of the tournament. On the performance of the West Indies team I think it's a terrific performance by the West Indies team, especially the bowling department. I think their two opening bowlers; it's terrific to see the way they bowled. Just the kind of lines and lengths they bowled. They played well as a team. They really gelled well. They had three tight chases in the knockouts and they did enough to get through. Their bowling definitely was quite handy and it helped them once they came to Dhaka. These pitches also suited their kind of bowling. There is definitely a lot of talent in their bowling. On whether the Indian batsmen were vulnerable against pace? I think you've got to give credit where it's due. I'd like to give credit to the West Indies bowlers. They bowled really well. They bowled really good line and lengths. They maintained the pressure right through the game. At no stage, it really felt like they were giving us easy balls to hit. Also, I think, we lost too many wickets in the first 15-20 overs. That allowed them to bowl well. When we look back at the game, we probably could have batted much better in the beginning. There were a few soft dismissals, there was carelessness. But really proud of the way the boys came back and fought. To take that game to the last over, to fight the way they did really make me sit outside very proud. On his team’s fighting character We found ourselves in a lot of pressure situations over the last three months. Whether it's been in India or in Sri Lanka, even in this World Cup. We've found ourselves in pressure situations and we've also come out of it and have always found someone to fight. I think that's been the characteristic for me about this team - they've got a good team spirit. There are people who really want to compete, play and find themselves out of difficult situations. Unfortunately, we put ourselves in too difficult a situation today that we couldn't pull ourselves back. To score only 146 on that wicket wasn't enough. Despite that, we fought, but we should've batted much better. On Sarfaraz Khan, who scored five half-centuries in the tournament I think he's had a very good tournament in terms of numbers and stats, but I think if he's honest with himself, he'll know that he should have converted some of those into one or two hundreds. Today (Sunday), was a really good opportunity. He was batting really well. It was an opportunity for him to bat right till the end and get us to a fighting total. But yeah, he has got a lot of talent and he's shown that in the tournament. There are a lot of boys in this team who I think have a lot of talent. Some of them have been able to show it, some not so much. But it's the starting of a journey for some. Experiences like these, tournaments like these will really help them. On his overall experience with the U19 team I think it's been a terrific experience when I reflect on it. I don't just reflect on this tournament, but the three months I've been with these boys. I've enjoyed it and I hope they've enjoyed it as much as I have. My idea was really to leave them with some thoughts and create an environment where they learn in and have fun. The idea was to win this Cup, but even if that didn't happen, the lessons that they take from it, the experiences that they've had over the last three months, should hopefully hold them in good stead. We don't want them to only play this U19 World Cup, but I am hoping that some of them will represent India, and hopefully some of them will go on and have very successful first-class careers. Some will take more from it; some will take less. But hopefully, each one of them has had something that they can take away from this. I know they've had a great time, they've built bonds and friendships and relationships that will stay with them for a really long time. On the road ahead for the young boys There's an incredible desire to improve, a desire to keep getting better and keep learning. That's been the real positive. There's a lot of passion for the game. I think it's now really about being smart and figuring out what are the skills required. I think one of the biggest challenges for these boys now is that from here they move on to men's cricket. I was telling some of them at one stage, you've competed with U19 boys to get into this U19 India team. You've competed with boys of your age who maybe weren't as talented as you are. But when you suddenly walk out of here, you are going to have to compete with the senior Indian boys - with a Rohit Sharma and a Virat Kohli. It's a challenge and it will take time. Not all of them are going to compete tomorrow for Indian spots, it takes a few years. You've got to keep improving. You have to challenge yourself, you have to push yourself and learn quickly because first-class cricket is a tough environment and the last thing you want is for some of them to fall behind.