New Delhi: India’s humiliating defeat to South Africa in the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup Super Eight opener raised serious questions about an underperforming batting unit, with assistant coach Ryan ten Dochate admitting that changes – including the possible addition of Sanju Samson – are firmly on the table.
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India’s left-hand top order once again crumbled under pressure while chasing 188, eventually falling to 111. Attention has been mainly focused on out-of-form opener Abhishek Sharma and Tilak Varma, who has managed just 15 runs in three consecutive games – his first in the tournament – and his struggles have compounded India’s fragile start.
Addressing the selection dilemma, Dota admitted that bringing in a right-handed option like Samson is being seriously considered.
“Yes, of course, we have looked at the five games now and four teams have opened the innings with part-time off-spin and have taken a wicket each time, except for the United States game, where we lost Abhay (to pacer Ali Khan) without a run in any situation,” he said.
“So every innings started at one for nil and I think it was nil for one every time or a couple of runs every time and that obviously put pressure on the link players. Tilak and Sky (Suriya), their role was to link up with the guys at the back end but it didn’t work out that way,” he added.
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India now faces a difficult choice between supporting struggling businesses and making bold changes.
“Do you stick with guys who we thought have done really well over the last 18 months but are now maybe a few runs short? Or should we turn around and bring in Sanju, who’s also a great player and obviously helps tactically to get a right-hand bowler in the lead and I’m sure that’s going to be a talking point in the next few days going into these two very important games,” he said.
Ten Dushat also revealed that Abhishek’s poor performance was exacerbated by illness.
“You want him to be able to get up and run, have confidence in his swing, confidence in his game plan (against Abhishek), and when you score three zeros, that’s going to start to put pressure on you. I saw some really good signs with the Nets on Friday night. I think I mentioned that in the press conference at the time. But he looked a little short and it’s our job as a coaching staff to correct that. We have four days to do that,” he added.
He also defended Linkusinger, who didn’t pay much as a closer.
“There is no point in talking about the rhythm in the net, or how the players are feeling, or they are not feeling anything. Now is the time for us to roll up our sleeves and let all the players perform, and like I just said, it is a challenge for the staff and the players to regroup and put in a huge effort for the next game against Zimbabwe,” he concluded.
