Pandya Defiant Amid Criticism Of India’s Long Tail After 2nd Straight T20I Loss

A below par show by most of the batters once again let Team India down as Hardik Pandya and co. endured their second T20I defeat in as many matches against West Indies at Guyana on Sunday.

Batting first, India lost Shubman Gill and Suryakumar Yadav inside the powerplay overs and the team couldn’t recover much from the early jolts.

Tilak Varma, who is just two T20Is old, was the only shining light among the Indian batters, scoring an impressive 51 off 41 balls, also pushing India to a respectable 152/7 in 20 overs. Varma was part of a crucial 42-run stand with Ishan Kishan after the team was reduced to 18/2 in 3.3 overs. He also added 38 runs for the fifth wicket with Pandya before getting out to Akeal Hosein in the 16th over.

Pandya during the post-match presentation ceremony admitted that the batters let the team down, adding any total touching 170 would have been an ideal one.

“If I am being honest that was a not a pleasing batting performance, we could have batted better. 160-plus or 170 would have been a good total,” said Pandya.

‘Batters need to take more responsibility’

When asked about the team combination and India’s choice to field a long tail, Pandya felt that with the set of players available the team needs to put faith in the top seven batters, before cautioning them to show more responsibility.

“With the current combination we have, we will have to trust our top 7 batters to come good and hope the bowlers win you games. We have to find ways to make sure we have the right balance but at the same time batters need to take more responsibility,” said Pandya.

India limited their batting options till number seven in both the matches, following which the tailenders come in.

Former Test batter Wasim Jaffer is not a fan of India’s decision to field a long tail. In a post-match show on ESPNCricinfo, Jaffer had slammed the decision of fielding a long tail, claiming that none of the Indian tailenders have the ability to hit boundaries.

“Numbers 8, 9, 10, and 11 do not have boundary-hitting ability. That’s a concern when you play in this format. If Australia, England, New Zealand, or even West Indies were playing, you would back them to get those runs. India is not strong in that department, and that’s where the balance needs to be right,” said Jaffer.

Meanwhile when asked the same to Arshdeep Singh, the left-arm pacer had backed the team’s decision. “Such things always come up after the end of the game. We were confident of winning the match with the playing XI we fielded. We always back our team and the playing XI. Whether there are six bowlers or nine, it doesn’t matter. The XI players who take the field back each other to win the match from any situation,” Arshdeep had told reporters after the first T20I, which India lost by four runs.