India pacer Arshdeep Singh said that the team management was not concerned about the batting depth of the side following the 4-run loss in the first T20I to West Indies of the five-match series in Trinidad.
Chasing only 150 runs to win, India fell short by 4 runs and one glaring thing to notice was that India played only 6 proper batters with Sanju Samson coming at no.6, followed by all-rounder Akshar Patel at 7, and then the tail started with Kuldeep Yadav at no.8.
This could be called criminal in modern-era T20I cricket to not have batting prowess right till no.8, something which the West Indies possessed as Romario Shepherd, Alzarri Joseph, and Akeal Hosein all could wield the willow.
However, Arshdeep Singh remains optimistic and emphasizes that the team is resilient and determined to address any issues moving forward. He was asked about the concerns around the batting depth that has Akshar Patel, at number seven.
"Not really. This kind of thing always comes after the end of the match. The playing XI we fielded, we were confident that we would win the match. We always back our playing XI whether it has six bowlers or nine. It doesn't matter at all,” Arshdeep said after the match.
Arshdeep, who conceded four wides in the penultimate over of the West Indies innings, said the Indian team will "review" the loss. The pacer also tried his best with the willow, scoring 2 boundaries in the penultimate over to bring down the equation to 10 runs in the last 6 balls.
"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,” he added.
"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," he said about his batting.
Arshdeep Singh also said that the wicket of Tilak Varma, who scored an impressive 39 in 22 balls on his debut, was not the turning point.
"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 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 said.
The teams will play the next two matches in Guyana with the final two games scheduled for Lauderhill, Florida next week.
(PTI inputs)
