India was quite happy to bat first on losing the toss in Pune T20I versus Sri Lanka as it gave the team another wonderful opportunity to fine-tune its approach while setting up a target before the World Cup in Australia, opener Shikhar Dhawan said.
India hammered the visitors by 78 runs after posting a huge total of 201/6, with Dhawan and his partner KL Rahul scoring half-centuries and Shardul Thakur, Navdeep Saini doing the bulk of the damage with the ball.
"Today we wanted to bat first because we want to refine ourselves more while batting first and winning more games, so that brings more confidence," Dhawan told reporters after India won the three-match series 2-0.
"So that is why, consciously, we are doing it and the result is in front of you that we are winning even while batting first. We are making (setting) big targets and that brings a lot of confidence to us as a team."
Quite a few slots are up for grabs as the team management continues to try out different individuals. "I'm sure the management wants to try players," Dhawan said. "Today also we wanted to try other players who haven't batted in the series and give them a fair chance because we're only left with five T20 (actually over 12) games."
"As a team, we wanted to give chance to everyone and that's why they've been rotating players. Till World Cup comes, everyone is refined and know their job as well."
In place of Kuldeep Yadav, Rishabh Pant and Shivam Dube, Yuzvendra Chahal, Sanju Samson and Manish Pandey made it to the playing XI for this game. "It is more to give players (time), like how Sanju Samson came in today (at number 3), then Shreyas (Iyer), so they can get more time in the middle, because it is a totally different field when you are batting in the match and having more overs and so that was the reason today," Dhawan said.
"And last game was quite normal and before that, I was not in the team, so I didn't watch matches as well and I didn't know what was happening. But today's one I can tell say that that was the reason. Even Manish Pandey went up. So they can have more time, otherwise same pattern going on."
India next plays T20Is against a strong New Zealand side later this month. "In these series we can do the experiment, it is best time to experiment and once we know that this guy is clicking, then we are going to go ahead with those pattern again, because No. 1 2 3 we always know who is going to come," Dhawan said with the team looking at the bigger picture. "That is why it is important to experiment and we can take that risk right now, like we won the first match."
(Inputs from PTI)
