It's all about adaptation – Shreyas Iyer on India’s takeaways from the England T20I series
India suffered a staggering defeat in Southampton in the last T20I, losing the series by an embarrassing 4-0 margin. Despite a desperate effort from the batters, it wasn’t enough for the visitors to turn the tide, considering the huge score on the board.
The Indian skipper, Shreyas Iyer scored a quickfire 28 off just 16 balls, trying to keep the Indian ship afloat. After India’s sixth consecutive defeat in the last seven T20I games, the team morale was extremely deflated. Talking at the post-match presentation, Iyer opened up on the learnings from the fray while reflecting on what could have been done better.
Explaining what India will take forward from the series, Iyer said, “There's a lot to take out, honestly speaking. Firstly, the conditions, the awareness, the adaptation to the wickets. I feel that every ground we played at, this was probably the best wicket we played on so far. So you saw even when we batted today, the approach was completely different. And it's all about adaptation, I feel. The conditions changed, kept changing right from match one. But yeah, as professionals, we need to learn and be aware of all these conditions.”
Reflecting on the series' learnings, Shreyas added, “Absolutely. I feel that it's important that we communicate as much as possible that what we could have done better over here, especially. And you see, fielding plays a key role in winning matches. So that is one aspect we need to work on hardly. And especially when you come in overseas conditions, the dimensions of the ground is completely different. So the quicker you adapt, the better.”
Highlighting what could have been done differently, Iyer added, “Yes, absolutely. I feel that especially on this track where it was a belter, we could have probably bluffed, you know, honestly speaking. But also we dropped a couple of catches which probably cost us a bit in the total. And we would have been chasing around 220 to 225. That would have been probably one of the best chases we could have done. But unfortunately, we didn't get that opportunity. But hopefully as we mentioned earlier, great learning.”
He also opened up on top-order vulnerability, stating, “Absolutely, we lost in cluster. And rather than making partnerships, we were going after the chase, which is not particularly you can go on these wickets. I think you need to probably have that sort of awareness that okay, the wicket is playing in such a way. So take some time, target your particular bowlers. And I felt that their execution in bowling were spot on. And they've played a lot of cricket over here. So definitely I'm sure that they were on top of their mark.”
He concluded with a word about the 233-run stand between Jos Buttler and Harry Brook, adding, “Yes, I think it was sensational batting by Buttler. And then Harry came in and he changed the momentum towards them. So that partnership definitely steadied the ship for them. And we dropped a couple of catches. I think that could have changed the rhythm of the game. But nonetheless, great learning. And I'm sure that boys would be aware next time when they come here.”
