India faced a close-fought battle in the series opener against West Indies, falling short by just four runs. With 10 runs needed in the final over and three wickets in hand, India couldn’t muster the required runs for victory. Reflecting on the match, India’s seamer Arshdeep Singh stressed the importance of having a batsman bat through the innings, as West Indies strategically placed four fielders on the boundary during the crucial last two overs. Such a presence at the crease could have made a decisive impact on the outcome.
“Any player who is in that kind of situation do believe that he can win the match for the team. When you plays for your country, you always get that extra push,” he said.
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Arshdeep Singh expressed his delight at witnessing Tilak Varma’s impressive batting performance in his debut match. He also stated that Varma’s wicket was not the turning point of the game.
“I can’t say it was the turing point. It is his style of playing. He plays a lots of attacking shots and in those he will gives chances but as we have seen, he is massively talented and he did so well on his debut, when he was immensely under pressure and not to forget we were chasing. He played few beautiful shots and I think he should always back his game and in the future he will help team win a lot of matches,” he said.
Arshdeep Singh also said that discussions about India’s long tail in batting tend to surface mainly when the team faces defeat.
“Not really. These kind of things always comes after the end of the match. The playing XI we fielded, we’re confident that we will win the match. We always back our playing XI be it has six bowlers or nine. It doesn’t matter at all,” he said.
“This format is all about momentum. In a game, you can see how momentum shifts from one side to another. We still got to play four matches to play and we would try to do well in those,” he said.
The next two T20 matches between the teams will take place in Providence, Guyana, on Sunday and Tuesday, while the final two matches are scheduled for August 12 and 13 in Lauderhill, Florida.
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