Bangalore Royal Challengers’ captain Rahul Dravid at a practice session in Mohali on Sunday

Mohali: Bangalore Royal Challengers are struggling to find their feet in the Indian Premier League (IPL), but captain Rahul Dravid on Sunday said the youngsters should not get disheartened as performance in Twenty20 was not an indicator of a player’s ability in the longer version of the game.

“Success in Twenty20 may not automatically translate into success in the four-day Ranji or Tests,” Dravid, whose team will take on Kings XI Punjab here on Monday, said during a pre-match news conference.

He said batsmen scoring runs in Twenty20 cannot be rated as better batsmen because they will need to prove themselves in the longer version of the game.

“Twenty20 is unique and lot of young Indian players are excelling in this format. Whether they can take this confidence to the next level is debatable. It’s not going to be easy and the skill with which you achieve success in the shortest format may not provide success in Ranji and Tests,” he said.

Asked whether the youngster playing in this format are going to be good enough to perform in the longer versions, Dravid said, “it’s hard to make that call and rate what is a good performance in this format.”

Asked how he felt playing and leading in this format and if this was the same as leading and playing for one’s country, Dravid said, “nothing can be equated to playing for the country.”

Dravid, however, said the pressure of winning while playing for the country and for a franchise was the same.

“Whichever team you are a part of, you want to win and want to do well,” he said.

On his team’s performance which is placed at the bottom of the points table, Dravid admitted that “below par” batting had let them down.

“We have not batted the way we would have liked to. It has been a bit below par, which has cost us some games. Probably, we will do better next time,” he said.

On criticism that the Royal Challengers were more of a Test side and not suited for the Twenty20 format, Dravid said, “even other teams are not doing well, some of whom had been rated much higher than us. We still have got six games to go and it’s a great opportunity for us to bounce back. If we don’t, it will be a disappointment for us and our franchise.”

On the other hand, Kings XI have been on a roll having won five matches at a stretch, even though they lost their last match against the Chennai Super Kings on Saturday.

However, that loss should not be much of a bother for the Punjab team, with leading wicket-taker Irfan Pathan and Shaun Marsh in its ranks.

Twenty-four-year old Australian left-hander Marsh has so far played four games and scored of 84, 40, 39 and 58.

They enjoyed a formidable batting line-up including skipper Yuvraj, Mahela Jayawardene and Ramnaresh Sarwan.