The Indian men’s head coach, Rahul Dravid, acknowledged the need for batting depth, a facet of the game in which India has not yet kept up with the other best cricketing teams. During the recently concluded series against West Indies, the team’s dearth of batting depth became apparent. Even after Dravid’s announcement that the team for the T20I series will be drastically different from the team that will compete in the World Cup, concerns regarding this aspect of the game remain relatively unchanged.
Arshdeep Singh, who was India’s No. 8 in the fifth T20I, has had few opportunities to bat internationally and has a strike rate of 67.57 in the Indian Premier League. Kuldeep Yadav, the veteran batsman among India’s final four, has a T20I strike rate of 77.95, which is considerably higher than No. 10 Yuzvendra Chahal’s score of 46. Even in 50-over cricket, their numbers do not warrant discussion.
In two of the five T20I encounters, the lower order was required to make a significant contribution with the bat. Except for Arshdeep Singh’s unusual 7-ball 12 in the first game, there were no noteworthy contributions. The issue was equally problematic in the preceding ODI series, with the lower order having to bat in the second ODI but being unable to assist the cause.
“Our squad (for the world cup) will be a little different to what we have here,” Dravid said after India’s loss in the fifth T20I, on Sunday. “In terms of the squad that we had here, it didn’t allow us the flexibility to have the combination to allow us to make the changes. Going forward, we will have to look at certain areas where we can get better.
“Finding depth in our batting is an area that we are trying to address and do as best as we possibly can. But that’s certainly an area that we need to look at, how we cannot weaken our bowling attack but have a certain depth in our batting that can go deeper. As the game is going on, the scores are becoming bigger and bigger.
“If you look at the West Indies, they had Alzarri Joseph coming at No 11. He can hit a mean ball. There are sides that have depth, we have challenges on that front. We need to work on that. It’s certainly a series that has shown us that we need to build on that depth.”
Several opportunities were likely lost during India’s three-format tour of the West Indies, which did not go as planned. Due to rain, one of the two Test matches was drawn, costing the visitors vital points in the WTC cycle. The three-match ODI series was decided by a single match, while the five-match T20I series was lost. Dravid was dissatisfied with the final outcome, but he acknowledged that vital lessons had been learned throughout the tour.
“You get into any series wanting to win it, that’s the first thing that we wanted to do,” he said. “We didn’t tick that off. We didn’t win the series, that was a disappointment. Other than that, there were some young guys we wanted to try out, wanted to give them opportunities in the series. We gave a few debuts in the series. There were other people as well that we trialled out in different combinations. From that perspective, there were some positives, some tick marks from some of the players. We can look forward to the future with a lot of hope.
“Here (in T20Is) we did well to come from 2-0 down, but we couldn’t close out the series. We did a few mistakes today. Through all five games, we made some mistakes, in the first couple of games and even today. We didn’t bat as well as we could have. But that can happen. It’s a young team a developing team. There are going to be times when there would be a few ups and downs. Of course, we are disappointed. We would have wanted to get the right result. To come from 0-2 down would have been special. Credit to the West Indies, they are a good T20 side. Playing in their home conditions, they played particularly well.
“We tried to do a few things (in the ODI series) with the World Cup and the Asia Cup coming up. The goals of that (ODI series) were slightly different from what we wanted to achieve, and glad there were some important lessons from that one-day series and got the right result.”
According to Dravid, the debut performances of Yashasvi Jaiswal, Tilak Varma, and Mukesh Kumar were one of the most important insights from the tour of the West Indies. Jaiswal made his international debut with a century in his first Test. In the fourth T20I, he scored a scintillating 84 not out. Tilak, on the other hand, accumulated the most runs in the T20I series, scoring 173 at a strike rate of over 140.
“All the three guys who made their debuts for us in the series, stood up,” Dravid said. “Whether it was Yashasvi Jaiswal in that game; he played a really good innings in the fourth game at the top of the order, and showed his ability. He has shown us what he can do in the IPL and it’s nice that he could replicate that in the international scene. Tilak Varma was very good coming in the middle order, he came in at some really difficult situations. But every time played with a lot of intent, played very positively, looked to move the game along, fielded brilliantly throughout the series, and bowled one or two overs as well. So really positive signs from Tilak. Having a left hander in the middle does make a difference against some of the attacks that we are playing against.”
He also heaped praise on Mukesh, who has been thrust into the national team and given his debut in all three formats. On the tour, he participated in nine out of ten games and returned with the same number of wickets at a reasonable economy rate, often delivering the most difficult overs.
“He (Mukesh) acquainted himself really well. He bowled in the death, sometimes he was called upon to bowl some really difficult overs against some really powerful, hard-hitting batsmen. There are some really good positives from the guys who made their debuts for us. Hopefully, they will take some positives from the series and keep learning as they go forward. They will be going to Ireland, to get a few more opportunities in the T20 format. The more opportunities they get, the better and better they will get.”
