India had lost the first T20I against the West Indies but captain Hardik Pandya said that there are positives to take from the match.
India’s five-match T20I series against the West Indies started with them being stunned by the hosts in Trinidad and Tobago. While the West Indies were restricted to a total of 149/6, India ended up falling four runs short of the target. The West Indies have thus taken a 1-0 lead in the series.
India captain Hardik Pandya lauded the team’s bowling effort after the match and stated that the loss of wickets in a clump during the middle overs may have cost them the match. India needed just 37 to win in the last five overs with Pandya and Sanju Samson in the middle. However, former West Indies captain Jason Holder definitively turned it in his team’s favour in the 16th over. He dismissed Pandya with his first ball and Samson was run out off the third thanks to some sharp work in the field from Kyle Mayers. Holder ended up bowling a maiden and India never really recovered from the blows they received in that over.
Pandya also said that the performances of the two players who made their T20I debuts were encouraging. While batter Tilak Varma was making his international debut, fast bowler Mukesh Kumar made his T20I debut, having played his first ODI and first Test in this tour as well.
Hardik Pandya goes gaga over Tilak Varma, Mukesh Kumar
“Brilliant. First of all Mukesh, to have the two weeks he has had here where he made is debut in all three formats is really good. Genuinely, he’s a nice guy. He has a very good heart, a big heart, wants to contribute for the team. He bowled a couple of overs back to back and that was fantastic,” said Pandya in the post-match presentation ceremony.
“Tilak – very pleasing to see the way he started his innings. Not a bad way to start your international cricket with a couple of sixes. You can see the confidence and the fearlessness they have. Going forward, they are going to do wonders for India,” he further said.
Mukesh couldn’t get a wicket and ended with figures of 0/24 in three overs. Tilak, meanwhile, started his innings in a positive fashion, hitting two sixes off the second and third balls that he faced. He eventually fell to fast bowler Romario Shepherd after scoring 39 off 22 balls. Additionally, Tilak was crucial to India’s cause in the field. He took a screamer of a catch to dismiss the dangerous Johson Charles off the bowling of spinner Kuldeep Yadav. Tilak then crucially sent back Nicholas Pooran, who had scored 41 off 34, off Pandya’s bowling.
