Indian skipper Hardik Pandya admitted that losing wickets in regular intervals has lost them a match against West Indies in the 1st T20 of the 5-match series. Team India lost the opening encounter against the Men in Maroon after being well-set in the chase in Trinidad and Tobago.
Winning in the toss, West Indies opted to bat first on two-paced wickets in Brian Lara Cricket Stadium, as their openers tried to take on the Indian pacers before spinners applied pressure on the Windies’ batters in the middle overs and death overs to restrict them for 149 runs in 20 overs. The young Indian team could not chase down the total in the 2nd innings as they lost wickets at regular intervals to lose the game by 4 runs at the end.
Speaking to the broadcasters after the team’s loss against West Indies, Hardik Pandya feels that the team was comfortable at the chase at one stage before losing wickets admitting that the team was in good control of the game before losing the plot in the final few overs of the game and reckons that losing wickets have cost them the game and added it was good for them to play three spinners in the team.
“We were right in the chase and quite comfortable there. We made some errors which cost us the game which is fine. A young team will make mistakes. We will grow together. Throughout the game, we were in control of the game which was the positive in this game. Good four games coming ahead,” he added.
“In T20 cricket, if you lose wickets, it becomes difficult to chase down any total, that’s exactly what happened. A couple of hits can change the momentum towards you. When we lost a couple of wickets, that halted our chase. It (playing three spinners) was more to do with the conditions. We would like to give opportunities to the two wrists (Kuldeep and Chahal) to play together. Axar adds a very good component in his batting as well,” Hardik Pandya said.
India had two debutants in their team with Tilak Varma and Mukesh Kumar making their debut for the Indian team in T20 cricket. The two debutants had a brilliant game for India as they performed exceedingly well for the team being a bright spot in the team’s four-run loss.
Mukesh Kumar Has A Very Good Heart, Wants To Contribute For The Team – Hardik Pandya
Hardik Pandya hailed debutant Mukesh Kumar for his brilliant performance throughout this tour in West Indies in all three formats of the game and lauded him for his fantastic debut in T20 cricket and reckons that he always wants to contribute to the team’s success at the highest level.
“We felt that was the right combination. Mukesh (Kumar) – to have these two weeks he has had in West Indies – where he made debuts in all three formats is good. Genuinely, he’s a nice guy. He has a very good heart and wants to contribute to the team. He bowled a couple of overs back to back and that was fantastic,” Hardik Pandya added.
Mukesh Kumar first earned a national call-up for India’s ODI series against South Africa last year and has been in and around the India squad. The Bengal pacer has made his debut for India in all three formats of the game in the West Indies tour and will look to use all of his experience to perform for the team at the highest level.