According to India assistant coach Ryan ten Doeschate, the current T20 world champions’ immediate challenge is to shed the label of “underachievers” in overseas settings and must comprehend how to swiftly adapt to a variety of playing environments.
India, captained by Shreyas Iyer, cut a sorry figure in England after being soundly defeated by Ireland in the two-match Twenty20 International series. The hosts crushed the visitors by 9 wickets in the fourth Twenty20 to establish an unbeatable 3-0 lead in the five-match series in Bristol on Thursday.
“We have spoken so much about adaptability, it’s easy to say we need to adapt, it’s easy to say but really it’s a point now where we need to understand the process, what is needed to make those adaptations,” PTI quoted Ten Doeschate as saying at the post-match press conference.
“Psychologically and mentally the challenge for the group is to accept the fact that we are underachieving in foreign conditions and tell the players look there is a big prize two years down the line in Australia.
“Do we want be a team that smashes 250 in India and looks great hitting 80m six at Eden Gardens or do you want to come to places like Manchester, Southampton where things are slightly different and further down the line the MCG. Those were the places do we want to be the team to excel in different conditions and do we have the mentality to make those adjustments. That’s the mental challenge and that’s we need the players to take that on,” he added.
After playing on flat Indian pitches for the majority of the year, the Indian hitters struggled in seam-friendly Irish and English conditions during the current tour. Ten Doeschate stated that making quick adjustments is essential to succeed in foreign pitches.
“I think Jofra (Archer) and (Josh) Tongue bowled exceptionally well and we haven’t made that adjustment as much as we have spoken about it, we have spoken about the need to evolve and what works in India won’t necessarily work here.
“We just haven’t quite managed to shift from that mindset where we read on whether we are really strong on good wickets and the little adjustments that were needed. I think all the three wickets were little slower, had a little bit of bounce. You can’t play the same way. We are trying to address that, but at the same time our performances have been really poor,” he said.
Ten Doeschate did not overlook the fact that captain Shreyas Iyer, who was not a member of the team that won the T20 World Cup, is the only player scoring runs on this tour.
“The majority of those guys won a World Cup four months ago, one of the guys (Shreyas Iyer) who wasn’t there is scoring heavy runs. But it is disappointing as it has been, it’s really just to take learnings from these games, keep trusting the players and give them that runway given what they have done for the country in the past.”
Iyer, the T20 captain, is leading from the front with the bat, but he needs some time and assistance to become a great captain, according to the coach.
“He is one the guys who has exploited the ability to use the crease and that’s how you have to play in these conditions. He has batted really well in all three innings. But again, I don’t want to stand and defend the players and also be over critical, but the onus is on the players to have the mindset to accept that the fact it’s really going badly and look at the evidence in front of them.
“Shreyas is a fantastic leader and age wise if you are looking at two years down the line in Australia you have to make some really tough calls, there is going to millions of opinions about it. The immediate backlash of transitioning to a new captain after losing two games against Ireland and 3-0 down in England, I think it isn’t very good. It is important to look at things a little realistically,” Ten Doeschate said.
Ten Doeschate made it clear that things will change slightly once Hardik Pandya and Jasprit Bumrah rejoin the T20 team.
“We have made a few changes to the squad we brought here, Hardik and Jasprit make a big difference to the team. We have got a slightly different squad with different weapons and we need to give Shreyas a little bit of time to grow into that role and the players to adapt to his captaincy style as well. He started really well, leading from the front with the bat. I think he will get his just rewards as a captain.”
The Dutchman claimed that India didn’t have enough time to prepare for the tour because of their hectic schedules back home.
“Ideally you want to prepare longer for a series but again we came from a series in India. I think I mentioned in the past about balancing freshness and being fair on the players as well, make sure they get to spend a little bit of time at home after World Cup, IPL and then the Afghan series and then we coming here and get four, five days practice is not ideal but one of the takeaways from what you seen so far is preparation for different conditions is really important.
“Mentally you have to be prepared to make that shift, ideally you have to identify things that work in one area don’t necessarily work elsewhere. You need to be open to make those changes a lot quicker than we have done in the last 2-3 weeks,” Ten Doeschate said.
The fifth and final Twenty20 International between the two teams will be held in Southampton on Saturday.
