SERIES TAKEAWAYS
Follow UsTilak Varma is ready for the big stage
There are several takeaways for team India from this five-match series, but none more important and significant than Tilak Varma proving that he is ready for the big stage; that he’s one for the present, not just the future.
Tilak’s maiden outing in international cricket was a highly anticipated one and in his first ever series, the 20-year-old not just lived up to the hype but somehow managed to exceed expectations. That too by some distance.
In an astonishing debut series, the youngster finished as India’s highest run-getter — 173 runs @ 57.66 and 140.65 — and, from the very first ball he faced, looked like he fully belonged. Across the five matches, Tilak showed incredible consistency — no dismissals under 25 — but what truly stood out was his maturity: his demeanor was that of an experienced veteran, not a rookie 20-year-old.
In the series, Tilak walked out to bat under significant pressure all but once, but despite the game situations being rough, he not just thrived but did so while staying true to himself, playing fearless counter-attacking cricket. He dazzled to the extent that he ended up overshadowing the mighty SKY, who himself enjoyed a fantastic series (166 runs @ 41.50 and 146.90).
Having grabbed his opportunity with both hands, Tilak has now given the management a serious selection headache. For the longest time, a versatile left-handed batter like him is precisely what the team’s been missing. So, the ‘dream batter’ is here, but are the management ready to a) take a leap of faith and b) make harsh calls?
Time will tell.
Batting depth is not a luxury but a necessity
If team India have learnt one lesson across these five T20s, it is that, come the T20WC next year, batting depth will be a necessity.
The composition of the squad forced the Men in Blue to play with five specialist bowlers — who can hardly hold the bat — throughout the series and, fair to say, it did not end well. Across the five T20Is, India’s lower-order (No.8 to No.11) averaged 10.8, adding a total of just 43 runs. Arshdeep himself accounted for 26 of these runs — Kuldeep, Chahal and Mukesh, between them, scored 9 runs at an average of 4.50.
In many ways, lack of batting depth was directly responsible for India losing the series. In the first T20I, the side was unable to get home despite needing 37 off 30 balls with six wickets in hand and in the other two occasions they batted first (second and fifth T20I), absence of batting resources down the order put the handbrakes on certain specialist batters, who approached the innings conservatively with one eye on the scorecard.
If anything, these five games have made it clear that it’ll be close to impossible for India to field both Kuldeep and Chahal together in the T20WC next year, due to the pair’s limitations with the bat in hand.
Kuldeep is starting to distance himself from Chahal in the fight for the wrist-spinner’s spot
Kuldeep and Chahal might both be equally unreliable with the bat in hand, but, as things stand, it’s evident that the former is a cut above when it comes to consistency with the ball.
In what was a rare occurrence, both Kuldeep and Chahal got the entire series and their showings were chalk and cheese. While Kuldeep oozed confidence and bowled with an oomph that had been missing from his game in the past couple of years, Chahal, outside the second T20I in Guyana, struggled big time for rhythm and proved to be largely ineffective, bowling without any venom.
Their respective figures in the fifth T20I — which West Indies won convincingly — told quite the story as while Kuldeep (4-0-18-0) finished with an economy under 5.00, Chahal ended up conceding 51 off the 4 overs he bowled. This was a byproduct of the fact that while the Windies batters recognized Kuldeep as a genuine threat (and hence prefered to play him out), they saw Chahal as a potential weak-link that can be targeted.
In the past year, Kuldeep has played less than half the number of T20Is Chahal has, but it’s clear that, on current form at least, he’s edged ahead of his compatriot.
Who is India’s first-choice wicket-keeper in T20Is? Nobody knows
With less than a year to go for the T20WC in the Caribbean, team India have a wicket-keeper problem. The problem being that, at this point, they have no idea as to who their first choice keeper is.
Post the T20WC in Australia, Ishan Kishan has been the team’s first-choice WK and he expectedly began the series taking the gloves. He also began the series as the incumbent opener.
However, after a pair of failures, Kishan found himself out of the side, with Sanju Samson taking over wicket-keeping duties. Samson making an impact in a couple of matches would have automatically elevated him in the pecking order (it would have made him first choice) but 32 runs and an average of 10.66 later, he’s done little to strengthen his case.
Worse, in Samson’s case, these three failures — two that came while batting first — will be used as a weapon to push the ‘king of wasting chances’ narrative. It’s a narrative that’s extremely harsh (and not entirely true), but what can also not be denied is the fact that Samson has not done himself any favors with the kind of series he’s had.
India will now want Samson to do well against Ireland, for otherwise they’ll be in an extremely uncomfortable situation down the line. What do they do if Samson does not click against Ireland?
Give him an extended run, bring back Kishan and play him in the middle-order or go back to KL again?
The jury is still out on Hardik Pandya’s captaincy
Hardik Pandya might already be one of the most successful IPL captains of all time, but it’s fair to say that the jury is still out on him at the international level. And that is largely due to some bizarre captaincy from his end across these five T20Is against the Windies.
Pandya, in the series, took the ‘I’ll do it all myself’ shtick to a whole different level as quite incredibly, he somehow ended up bowling more overs in the series than Mukesh Kumar, who featured in the XI in all five T20Is as one of two specialist seamers. A batting all-rounder, Pandya bowled 13 more balls than Mukesh in a series that was supposedly all about ‘process and not results’.
Mukesh was not the only bowler that Pandya under-bowled as Axar Patel, in the series, completed his quota of 4 overs just twice. The left-arm spinner did not bowl a single-ball in the second T20I in Guyana and bowled a total of just three overs across the first and fifth T20Is. Pandya effectively refused to bowl Axar to the left-handers as the left-arm spinner only delivered 20 balls against the southpaws.
While the reasoning behind the move was understandable (SLA is a favorable match-up for LHB batters), the decision felt like a missed opportunity to test Axar against an unfavorable match-up.
All the aforementioned calls are still debatable, but in the second T20I, Pandya made a straight-up bizarre call by opting to not bowl Chahal out. Having bowled a three-wicket over in the 16th, Chahal, who had one over remaining, looked primed to clean up the West Indian tail to help India level the series.
Bowling Chahal out was India’s path to victory but Pandya opted to not utilize the final over of the leggie and instead used his pacers. The move backfired severely as Hosein and Joseph added 26 runs for the 9th wicket to take the Windies home.
Captaincy aside, it is also worth keeping a close eye on Pandya’s batting. On the back of a slightly underwhelming IPL 2023, the 29-year-old endured a tough outing with the bat against the Windies, averaging 25.66 while striking at 110.0. On Sunday, he capped his series off by scoring 14 off 18 balls, finding no rhythm whatsoever.
Mukesh has a good yorker in him — and elite mentality
Ahead of the series, pretty much no one expected Mukesh Kumar to be India’s ‘death specialist’ but that’s precisely what unfolded. Across the five T20Is, Mukesh bowled a total of 77 balls and remarkably, a staggering 61% (47 off 77) of them came at the death, in the 16-20 phase.
Considering it’s never easy to stay put for 15 overs and then bowl three in a row, in a phase where batters are looking to unleash, Mukesh fared outstandingly. He finished the series with an E.R of 8.8: the number may seem high but it’s a very good figure when you factor in that he bowled predominantly at the death.
Mukesh impressed big time with his yorkers. He landed 17 of them, by some distance the most by any bowler in the series — at second was Alzarri Joseph with 7 yorkers. He had remarkable success with it as he was able to contain the batters to less than run-a-ball.
It was not just the lengths that were impressive, though, as on multiple occasions the right-armer out-witted the batters with the direction of his deliveries. He made life incredibly difficult for the likes of Holder and Shepherd by cramping them for room by following them.
It is safe to assume that, as things stand, Mukesh is ahead of Umran Malik in the T20 pecking order.
