Need to find depth in our batting: Dravid after T20 series loss to West Indies
The Hindu
India head coach Dravid stressed need for batting depth after 2-3 T20 series loss to West Indies. India had long tail, while West Indies had Alzarri Joseph at No. 11. Dravid praised Tilak Varma, Yashasvi Jaiswal and Mukesh Kumar for their debuts. He also hinted at return of injured players for Asia Cup.
India head coach Rahul Dravid has stressed the need to add batting depth following the 2-3 loss to the West Indies in the T20 series.
India played the series with a long tail comprising Arshdeep Singh, Yuzvendra Chahal, Kuldeep Yadav and Mukesh Kumar. Spin all-rounder Axar Patel batted at number seven.
In the series decider, India failed to accelerate in the death overs to end up with a below par 165/9. West Indies overhauled the target with two overs to spare.
"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. 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," said Dravid on Sunday.
On the contrary, West Indies had Alzarri Joseph coming in at number 11 with their side packed with bowling all-rounders.
"As these games are going on, and scores are becoming bigger and bigger, if you look at West Indies, they had Alzarri Joseph coming in at No. 11 and he can hit a mean ball. So you have sides which have that depth.
Asian Games champion Avinash Sable opened his season in the 3000m steeple chase with a silver in the Portland Track Festival, a World Athletics Continental Tour bronze event, in Oregon on Saturday. He clocked 8:21.85s. Asian champion Parul Chaudhary took the bronze in the women’s 3000m steeple chase in a season-best 9:31.38s. Former Asian bronze medallist Sanjivani Jadhav struck gold in the women’s 10,000m in 32:22.77s, a time which was a second off her personal best, while Seema was sixth in 32:55.91s.