India assistant coach Ryan ten Doeschate admitted that the Indian team is in disbelief after getting hammered 2-0 by a lower-ranked Ireland team on Sunday. Coming off the Indian Premier League on home pitches, the batters struggled to adapt to the Irish pitches, which eventually led to their undoing. The loss was India’s first T20I series defeat in over 1000 days. However, as the action now moves to England for the five-match series, ten Doeschate asked his batters to show more application. The first England T20I takes place on Wednesday in Durham.
“There’s a little bit of disbelief. It’s also very hard to be critical of guys who have just won a World Cup. We’ve been outdone or outsmarted by a team that just did the basics very well. Firstly, credit to Ireland, and secondly, the learnings for us in adapting to different conditions. That’s probably the biggest takeaway from this,” ten Doeschate said after the match.
“That was essentially our undoing. It’s something we spoke about before, but we just didn’t address it well enough out in the middle. We’re probably too used to a tempo and style where you can hit sixes more freely. I think this will be the case when you go to England as well, you know, maybe slightly quicker wickets, maybe slightly less wind, but we’re going to have to adapt and be a lot smarter about how we’d like to play if we’re going to get wins there.”
Take nothing away from Ireland
While a defeat to a team like Ireland could serve as a rude awakening, ten Doeschate refused to take anything away from the hosts. There is no such thing as an upset in T20I cricket anymore, with underdog teams having toppled giants on several occasions. Even so, Sunday was a red-letter day for Ireland as they sealed arguably the biggest series win in their history by defeating three-time T20I world champions, with ten Doeschate readily giving the hosts its flowers.
“Without being disrespectful, no,” ten Doeschate said on whether he expected such a challenge from Ireland. “You mark guys player to player and what the Indian players have achieved in their careers. There are a couple of guys sitting there who have won two World Cups on the bounce. There are guys who have played hundreds of IPL games, and I think that sort of just underlines what an achievement it is [for Ireland].
“I wouldn’t even say we had two bad days. I thought the Irish were fantastic over both days. Not a razzmatazz 240, 250 type of cricket. They [were] smart enough to navigate their way to two good scores. I mean we won both tosses as well. I’m pretty chuffed for them. It’s obviously super disappointing to lose, but to see them make progress like that and just win by making the most of what they have is very impressive, and we take our hats off to them.”