IND vs IRE: Worried Rahul Dravid Points Out Major Concern For India After Shock Series Loss Against West Indies

Team India head coach Rahul Dravid has reacted to the Men in Blue’s shock series loss against West Indies in the recently-concluded five-match T20I series. The hosts, on Sunday, thrashed India by eight wickets in the fifth and final T20I to seal a famous series win.

West Indies started the series in a fine fashion by winning the first two games. India then bounced back by winning the third and fourth T20Is before the hosts came up with a commanding display in the series decider. After a brilliant show with the bat in the penultimate game of the series, Team India’s batsmen flopped once again.

Openers Yashasvi Jaiswal (5) and Shubman Gill (9) failed to get going after hitting fifties in the fourth match. Suryakumar Yadav once again led India’s charge with the bat with a fighting knock of 61 runs but found little support from the other end. In the end, India finished their innings on 165 for 9 in the allotted 20 overs.

#TeamIndia put in a fight but it was West Indies who won the fifth & final T20I to win the series 3-2.#WIvIND pic.twitter.com/19KVS0MBHJ

— BCCI (@BCCI) August 13, 2023

In reply, West Indies chased it down with utmost ease. Arshdeep Singh managed to dismiss Kyle Mayers cheaply but the home side did not let India claw their way back into the game after that. Opener Brandon King starred with the bat, scoring an unbeaten 85 while Nicholas Pooran (47) and Shai Hope (22*) also played good knocks.

Rahul Dravid reacts to series loss:

Speaking after the loss in the final T20I, Rahul Dravid began by pointing out the lack of batting depth in the team. The visitors played all five matches with four No. 11s and it played a key role in all three losses. The legendary cricketer stated that Team India needs to work on sorting out the issue as soon as possible.

“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 Rahul Dravid.

“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. Obviously, we have some challenges on that front and we need to work on that. It’s certainly something that this series has shown us and we need to build on that depth,” added the former India skipper.

Meanwhile, the series win was West Indies’ first over India across formats comprising two or more games since 2016. Team India will now go to Ireland for a three-match T20I series before going to Sri Lanka for the Asia Cup.