Ind vs Ban, 3rd T20I – Ryan ten Doeschate: “We’re trying to push the boundaries of what we can do as a team”

With Rohit Sharma as captain and Rahul Dravid as coach, India had abandoned their safety-first approach to batting in limited-overs cricket. It paid off as they finished runners-up in the 2023 ODI World Cup and winners of the 2024 T20 World Cup.

“One hundred percent,” said ten Doeschate when asked if playing fearless cricket was part of the team philosophy. “I think that showed in the way we played. The Test match in Kanpur is a great example.”

“We’re trying to push the boundaries of what we can do as a team,” ten Doeschate said. “We obviously have the quality to do it. And then it's about giving the players the belief to do it in a safe space, that it's okay even if things don't go well. And even if you look back at the first game.” Two games, someone like Sanju (Samson), who got off to a fast start in the first game in Gwalior, it would have been easy for him to beat him and just score 50-60, but you can see that he tried to put pressure on the border. He knows the state of affairs and the messages are pretty consistent with that.

“We want the boys to expand their game. We want to move cricket forward as if it were moving with the times. And we want to be prepared for the major moments of crisis that lie ahead in the next 18 months.”

Another change since Gambhir became coach was the push to bring as many players as possible into the side bowl. Although Hardik Pandya didn't turn his arm, India used seven bowlers in the second T20I, each of whom picked up at least one wicket.

“You see how the game is going. It is very rare that all five bowlers or even six bowlers do well on a given day,” said ten Doeschate. “So it’s nice to have options. Ideally you would like them to bowl a bit more but someone like Hardik not bowling in the last game is just a testament to the depth of bowling in the team.”

India fielded the same eleven in the first two T20Is. But now that the series is sealed, they will likely put their bench strength to the test.

“That was always the plan,” ten Doeschate said. “Obviously there is good depth in the squad – a lot of the guys have the IPL experience. We're trying to give as many guys as possible the international experience of what we have in front of us. So someone like Harshit Rana, we are excited.” Obviously Tilak (Varma) came into the squad a little later. So we want to give Sanju another chance.

The third and final T20I will be played in Hyderabad where the average run rate in IPL 2024 was 10.54. However, Ten Doeschate said India will not blindly trust the data.

“Certainly the data and evidence agrees on this (a high-scoring game). But a bit like when we arrived in Delhi recently, you don't want to read too much into the data. We probably feel that those first three wickets we lost were maybe a bit too tough. The wicket was a bit sticky.

“So we will look at this wicket. We are aware that this pitch is high scoring during the IPL but we are now also five months away from the IPL. Therefore the conditions could also change. We’re keeping our fingers crossed it’s a high-scoring game and a quality game.”