Manchester, Aug 31: Making his T20I debut at age 38, Rahul Dravid scored 31 runs off 21 balls with three consecutive sixes off Samit Patel at Old Trafford.

Excerpts from Dravid’s media interaction:

On his T20I debut

[It was a] bit unique. It was nice, [it’s a] great atmosphere so it was nice to play and yes, [it’] a bit funny walking out knowing that you are not going to play another [T20I] again.

On the possibility of being asked to continue playing T20s after the way he batted

Good thing I announced it [the retirement] beforehand, didn’t I?

On Ajinkya Rahane’s 61 runs on debut

He played beautifully. [I’ve] seen him at the IPL for Rajasthan [Royals] as well, and [he’s] a really good young player. [He has] got a fantastic domestic record and [it’s] great to see him do well as soon as he has come into international cricket. [It] will give him a lot of confidence. [He is] obviously a very good player and once you have that confidence behind you it makes a big difference. So it was nice to see a young man do so well.

On this innings

Obviously it was nice. Twenty20 is that kind of game; you go in there and play your shots. Somedays it comes off [and] some days it doesn’t, you’ve just got to accept it. This is how the game is, to be honest. And today a few shots came off [so] it was good. [It’s] nice to go out there and get some runs.

On the game’s importance from India’s perspective

Every game is important, it is nice to win. It looked like a very good wicket so [we would have liked] 180 [runs]. Me and Ajinkya, when we were batting, we were sort of thinking maybe 180 was sort of a par score on the wicket. We were a bit short but we will have to field well and hopefully bowl well and get some early wickets.

On being disappointed at not getting a bigger score

You can’t. The runs you have got, you have to go out and defend it and really work hard on the field. You’ve got to make up those 10-15 runs [with a] bit of fielding. We have got a good young fielding side so hopefully they can show some of that fielding on the park.