Follow UsThe young Indian T20I team led by Suryakumar Yadav have already won the three-T20I series against Bangladesh after winning the first two games with utmost dominance.
The visitors have had to bear the brunt of some serious power-hitting from the Indian batters. In the first game, they chased down 128 in just 11.5 overs and then scored 221/9 despite being 41/3 at the end of the powerplay.
This batting approach has been visible in the Indian team for quite some time now, and it has already paid great dividends in the form of the 2024 T20 World Cup. However, for assistant coach Ryan ten Doeschate, the limits must be continuously pushed to win the big moments coming in the next year and a half.
“We are trying to push the limits of what we can do as a team," ten Doeschate said on the eve of the third T20I between India and Bangladesh.
"We have obviously got the quality to do it. And then it's about giving the players the belief to do it in a safe space, that if it's not going to go right, it's also okay.
And even if you look back at the first two games, someone like Sanju [Samson] getting a quick start in the first game in Gwalior, it would have been easy for him to knock it around and just get a 50-60 not out. But you can see he was trying to push the boundary. He knows the state of the game, and the messaging has been pretty consistent with that.
"We want the guys to expand their game. We want to move cricket forward like it's going with the times. And we want to be prepared for the big crunch moments that are coming up in the next 18 months,” the Dutchman said.
The former Netherlands batter also talked about India’s use of part-time bowlers, which came to great use in the second T20I, when Hardik Pandya didn’t have to spend his energy bowling.
"You see the way the game is going, it's very rare that all five bowlers, or even six bowlers, are going to go well on a given day," ten Doeschate said.
"So it's nice to have options. Ideally, you want them to bowl a little bit more, but someone like Hardik did not bowl in the last game; it's just a testament to the depth of the bowling in the team."
With the series also decided, India can certainly look to try their bench in the third T20I with the likes of Tilak Varma and Harshit Rana waiting in the wings.
"That was always the plan," ten Doeschate said about giving chances to the bench.
"Obviously, there's a nice depth in the squad - a lot of guys have the IPL experience. We are trying to expose as many guys as we can to international experience with what we have coming up.
“So someone like Harshit Rana, we are keen to give a game to. Obviously, Tilak came into the squad a bit later. Jitesh is there as well. We want to give Sanju another chance. So there are options."
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