India’s assistant coach Ryan ten Doeschate admitted there is a little bit of disbelief in the dressing room after they were stunned 2-0 by Ireland in the T20I series. While India lost the opening game at Belfast by 34 runs on Friday, they lost the second game at the same venue by one run on Sunday.
India were not up to the mark in all three departments of the game and thus had to pay the price. The batters didn’t play according to the match situation, whereas the bowlers were taken to the cleaners in the opening game of the series.
Furthermore, India was sloppy in the field as they could not hang on to their catches.
“There’s a little bit of disbelief,” ten Doeschate said on Sunday (June 28). “It’s also very hard to be critical of guys who have just won a World Cup. We’ve been outdone or outsmarted by a team who just did the basics very well.
“So firstly, credit to Ireland, and secondly the learnings for us in terms of being able to adapt to different conditions. That’s probably the biggest takeaway from this. The guys really know how to play in India. This is a good lesson in the fact that we’re going to have to adapt and play slightly differently when we go to different countries and play against different teams.”
The former Dutch batter admitted they couldn’t adjust to the Irish conditions after playing T20 cricket in the Indian conditions for the last four months.
“That was essentially our undoing,” he said. “It’s things we spoke about before, but we just didn’t address it well enough out in the middle. I think the big thing was the wind.
“Again, absolutely no excuses, but when presented with a different challenge we have to find solutions of playing in a different manner, in a better manner. I thought Ireland did that very well with the ball. They never let us hit straight. In two matches, I think we hit two straight sixes. They were both off the spinner. They just did the basics really well and we couldn’t combat that.
“We’re probably too used to a sort of a tempo and style where you can hit sixes more freely. I think this will be the case when you go to England as well, you know, maybe slightly quicker wickets, maybe slightly less wind, but we’re going to have to adapt and be a lot smarter about how we’d like to play if we’re going to get wins there.
“That [not getting hit down the ground] was the central focus of our discussion, particularly for the second game,” ten Doeschate said. “I thought we adjusted really well as a bowling unit today. I thought we bowled a lot smarter and that probably reflected in the score that they got on the board today, but again with the ball they were fantastic.
“I don’t think there was one ball pitched up from the seamers and their spinners, and again it was reflected in the economy rates. We need to learn from that. We need to adapt quicker. It is something we spoke about but, again, without being overcritical, we want the boys to make those adjustments a lot quicker.”
India will next take on England in a five-match T20I series.
