IND vs WI 5th T20 Rahul Dravid: Team India, captained by Hardik Pandya, had to face defeat by 8 wickets at the hands of West Indies in the fifth and decisive T20 match in Florida on Sunday. With this defeat, India had to lose the series against West Indies by 2-3. India’s head coach after this humiliating defeat Rahul Dravid Saved the team. Talking to the media, Dravid said that this is a young and developing team and such ups and downs are an integral part of it.
Need to add depth in batting: Dravid
Indian head coach Rahul Dravid stressed on strengthening the lower-order batting after the 2-3 loss to the West Indies in the T20I series. India landed in this series with Arshdeep Singh, Yuzvendra Chahal, Kuldeep Yadav and Mukesh Kumar, which weakened their lower order batting. All-rounder Akshar Patel came out to bat at number seven. In the deciding match of the series, India could not score fast runs in the death overs. The Indian team scored 165 runs for 9 wickets. West Indies won with two overs remaining.
Dravid told the press after the match, ‘The team that we fielded here did not give us the freedom to change the team composition. But I believe that there are some areas in which we can do better. He said, ‘Bringing depth in batting is one such area on which we are trying to work. We are trying our best but it is definitely an area that we can look into. We cannot weaken our bowling but we have to make sure that there is some depth in our batting.
Lower order batting needs to be strengthened
In contrast, the West Indies team is full of all-rounders and Alzarri Joseph was coming down to bat at number 11. Dravid said, ‘The scores are getting bigger and bigger in this format. If you look at West Indies, Alzarri Joseph comes to bat at number 11 and he can hit long hits. That’s why there are many teams which have depth in batting. He said, ‘Definitely we have some challenges in this matter and we need to work on them. This series definitely showed us that we have to strengthen our lower order batting.
debutants did well
Tilak Verma, Yashasvi Jaiswal and Mukesh Kumar made their debut in this T20 series and Dravid is impressed with the performance of all three. Dravid said, ‘I believe that all the three players who made their debut performed their responsibility well. Yashasvi Jaiswal played a brilliant inning in the fourth match. He showed that what he did in IPL, he can repeat in international cricket. He said, ‘Tilak Verma did really well in the middle order. He batted in difficult conditions on a few occasions but he showed his intent and batted positively. Mukesh made his debut in all formats in this tour and I think he has adjusted very well.
What is the plan regarding the Asia Cup?
The focus will now be on ODI cricket ahead of the Asia Cup and World Cup and Dravid hinted that injured players including Jasprit Bumrah, KL Rahul and Shreyas Iyer could be given a chance in the Asia Cup. He said, ‘Some of our players are making a comeback after recovering from injury. We have to give him a chance in the Asia Cup. For the Asia Cup, our one-week camp will start in Bengaluru from 23rd August. We will look into it there.