Young Indian pacer Arshdeep Singh feels that India missed one set batter to finish things off for India against the West Indies in the 1st T20 game, especially with five fielders inside the 30-yard circle for the last two overs of the game. The Men in Blue lost the close encounter by four runs after dominating the proceedings in most parts of the game.
With 150 runs to chase, Indian openers Shubman Gill and Ishan Kishan had a poor start to their innings as they were dismissed inside the powerplay before Suryakumar Yadav and debutant Tilak Varma put up a partnership for India in the middle overs.
At one stage, India looked to chase down the total before losing Hardik Pandya and Sanju Samson in the same over, which ended the team’s chances in 1st game.
Speaking to the reporters after the team’s loss against West Indies, Arshdeep Singh said that the team needed one batter to stay till the end to finish the game for India which was not the case, and asserted that they will sit and review the game on the things that they would have done better in the bowling innings and on finishing games in 2nd innings.
“I guess we needed one batter to stay till the end because in their last two over, five fielders were inside the 30-yard circle. We will review the match. What we could have done better in the first innings.
“Where we could have kept things tight and as a batting unit in the second innings where did we miss the finishing part? Any player who is in that kind of situation does believe that he can win the match for the team. When you play for your country, you always get that extra push,” Arshdeep Singh said.
Batting first, West Indies 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 to 149 runs in 20 overs but the Men in Maroon bowled phenomenally well in 2nd innings to defend the total against the young Indian batting lineup on Thursday.
Tilak Varma Should Always Back His Game And In The Future… – Arshdeep Singh
Arshdeep Singh believes that Tilak Varma‘s wicket was never a turning point as he always plays a high-risk game in T20 cricket and hailed him for his impressive T20 debut to put pressure on Windies bowler in the middle overs and said that he should continue his aggressive batting in the future as it can help India to win a lot of games.
“I can’t say it was the turning point. It is his style of playing. He plays a lot of attacking shots and in those, he will give chances but as we have seen, he is massively talented and he did so well on his debut when he was immensely under pressure and not to forget we were chasing.
“He played a few beautiful shots and I think he should always back his game and in the future, he will help the team win a lot of matches,” Arshdeep Singh added.
Tilak Varma made an impressive debut for India in T20 cricket as he played a counter-attacking knock of 39 runs in just 22 balls. He has shown the ability to anchor the innings at a very strike rate–and rescue the team in case of a top-order failure and can be a key player for India going forward in white-ball cricket.