India coach Rahul Dravid has said that a “few mistakes along the way” cost Men in Blue the T20Is series against West Indies, but there are positives to take from the tour as the visitors tried out new players and combinations.
India suffered a T20I series loss on Sunday after losing by eight wickets in the fifth and final match. With the series levelled at 2-2, India batted first but could only manage 165/9 with batters struggling to find their rhythm. Suryakumar Yadav was the only one to impress with a knock of 61.
In reply, West Indies cruised to the target in 18 overs with Brandon King scoring 85 not out and Nichols Pooran making 47.
This is India’s first bilateral series defeat to West Indies (minimum three matches) since 2006.
Earlier on the tour, India won the two-match Test series 1-0 and the three-match ODI series 2-1.
Analysing India’s performance on the tour, Dravid said that batting was a weak point for India in the T20I series.
“We are pleased with the Test matches and ODI series. In T20, we did well to come back from 0-2 down but could not close down the series,” Dravid said.
“In the first two games and the fifth T20I, we made a few mistakes along the way. We did not bat well as we could have. But it is a young and developing team, ” he added.
“We wanted to try out the youngsters in this series and give them an opportunity. We also tried a few combinations, so there were a few positives in that aspect.”
In the T20I series, India opted to play with just seven batters with Kuldeep Yadav batting at No 8. Rahul in his assessment said that India face challenges on the batting depth front but they do not want to compromise on their bowling as well.
“Regarding the squad we had in the Caribbean, we probably did not have the flexibility to change the combinations. But I think in the future, we can look at specific areas to get better – depth in the batting is one area we are trying to address. But we also do not want to weaken our bowling attack to ensure our batting goes bigger. We have challenges on that front, and we need to work on that,” he said.
The coach also praised the three debutants for India who made a mark on the tour.
“Jaiswal showed his ability in the fourth game. Tilak Varma played with a lot of intent and fielded brilliantly and also showed that he can bowl a bit. Mukesh also debuted in all the formats, and his ability to bowl at the death stood out. These are really good positives from the series,” he added.
