As the defeat’s timing coincided with the upcoming Asia Cup and World Cup, it worried Dravid. At the same time, Ravichandran Ashwin provided a significant assessment of the dilemma. India’s embarrassing loss to West Indies in the T20I series stemmed primarily from their weak batting lineup. Across the five matches in the recent series, India opted for four No.11 batsmen due to their focus on a varied bowling attack.
Unfortunately, this plan misfired, resulting in their first bilateral series defeat to West Indies in over a decade, dating back to 2006. The ill-timed loss raised worries for head coach Rahul Dravid, considering the approaching Asia Cup and World Cup. Concurrently, Ravichandran Ashwin provided a significant assessment of this challenging situation.
Addressing the media right after India’s 8-wicket loss in Lauderhill on Sunday, Dravid acknowledged the limitations imposed by the squad and available choices. He mentioned that this problem would be tackled as the team is just two weeks away from departing for the Asia Cup. Dravid mentioned:
“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,” he said after the final T20I. “But I think going forward, we’ve 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 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 continued.
Ravichandran Ashwin discusses India’s batting depth concern ahead of the ODI World Cup
If Shreyas Iyer and KL Rahul manage to make a return for the Asia Cup, India will have their top 7 players in the playing XI, including all-rounders Hardik Pandya and Ravindra Jadeja, along with top-order batsmen Shubman Gill, captain Rohit Sharma, and Virat Kohli.
However, the concern for India lies in their lower batting order. In the ODI series, India utilized Shardul Thakur as their No. 8, while the T20I series saw a lack of options, resulting in Kuldeep Yadav, Ravi Bishnoi, and Arshdeep Singh being assigned that role.
Last week on his YouTube channel, Ashwin endorsed Thakur as the No. 8 for the World Cup, but conceded that the problem would persist if India selects both Kuldeep and Yuzvendra Chahal in the team.
“You don’t want your tail to start so early, and that’s why you need someone like Shardul Thakur to come and smash a few balls coming in at No. 8. But you should play your best batters and bowlers to win a match. At the same time, if you needed 36 to win from 30 balls when you are six down, you should have the ability to close down such games as well.”
“So, that is the conundrum that India will go into ahead of the World Cup. If they play Kuldeep and Chahal together, then it gets to a situation where Kuldeep has to bat at No. 8,” he concluded.
India possesses an additional all-rounder in the spin-bowling category, Axar Patel, but due to his bowling style resembling that of Jadeja, he might have to be benched to accommodate Kuldeep or Chahal.
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