Rahul Dravid, the head coach of India doesn’t look satisfied with the batting performance of his team. He needs that the lower order batsman can also contribute better with the sixes and fours in this short format.
India lost the 5th T20 match against West Indies and as result West Indies won the series by 3-2. It was the deciding match but India couldn’t utilize it much better.
After the match coach Rahul Dravid said in the post match conference, “I think in terms of our squad here, probably it didn’t allow us the flexibility in some ways to be able to change the combinations a little bit. But I think going forward, we have got to look at certain areas in which we can get better. Finding depth in our batting has been an area we are trying to address.
….We are trying to do the best in an area we are trying to address. We are trying to do the best we possibly can but that’s certainly an area we can look at, how we cannot weaken our bowling attack but ensure we have a certain amount of depth in batting.”
He further added, “As these games are going on and scores are becoming bigger and bigger. If you look at the West Indies, they had Alzarri Joseph coming in at no. 11 and he can hit a mean ball. So you have sides which have that depth. Obviously we have some challenges on that front and we need to work on that. It’s certainly something that this series has shown us and we need to build on that depth.”
Regarding the young players he said, “You need to look at the youngsters to take you forward in this T20 format. So players like Yashasvi Jaiswal, Tilak Varma, Mukesh Kumar, Kuldeep Yadav and Arshdeep Singh, they are the future. But there are some gaps you need to fill. The major concern is the batting finishing at no. 7. Quite a few of the top order are not getting a start and converting it and quite a bit of that boils down to them feeling there’s nobody to bat after no. 7 so they have to bat the bulk of the overs and when you go with that mindset, it doesn’t help.
On trying out the all rounders he added, “ Within ten months time, India will be playing the T20 World Cup. This can’t be a template. The batting needs to come till no. 8, possibility no. 9, somebody who can knock the ball. And obviously the ballers, they need to start getting their batting a little bit better. At least their six hitting or four hitting ability. We need to look at guys who can bat and bowl. Shivam Dube comes to my mind. Venkatesh Iyer and Washington Sundar are the guys that come to mind and we need to groom them.”