India lost both their opening matches against South Africa in the five-match T20I series. Team India rested their key players like captain Virat Kohli, Rohit Sharma, Jasprit Bumrah and M Shami while a few players like Kuldeep Yadav, KL Rahul and Suryakumar Yadav suffered an injury ahead of the series. This can be called a second-string Indian side. The Indian team mangement are trying out new combinations in the series. Opening up on back-to-back losses against South Africa, Shreyas Iyer said that the team is prioritising the 2022 T20 World Cup over bilateral T20Is.
South Africa win the 2nd T20I by 4 wickets and are now 2-0 up in the five match series.
Scorecard - https://t.co/pkuUUB966c #INDvSA @Paytm pic.twitter.com/fwlCeXouOM
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"Our main aim is obviously the World Cup, so we have to see to it that we plan towards it. So we have that sort of mindset where we are completely free and not thinking about anything else. These are the actual games where we can practise what we were lacking in the past. That`s what we keep discussing in the team meeting as well. No matter what happens, whatever plans we discuss in the team meeting, we have to execute those. Even if we fail, we will learn from that and grow as a player and grow as a team. So that`s more important till we reach Australia," Shreyas said in the post-match press conference.
"We have made this plan that we will keep going no matter what happens," Iyer said. "Even if we keep losing wickets, it`s our gameplan and in the future too, we will go in with the same mindset. We will back ourselves and back our instincts."
Talking about the pitch conditions where Indian batters struggled as they weren`t able to put a score of 150 plus, Shreyas said: "I feel if something we could have done on this wicket is playing until 11 to 15 overs. But at the same time you need to keep the scoreboard ticking also. If I look back, I think 160 could have been a really good score on the board to put them under a little bit of pressure but we were around 12 runs short."
Dinesh Karthik played his first T20I in three years last game in Delhi but didn`t get much time in the middle. But on Sunday, Karthik had over six overs to make a mark and he did not disappoint the packed crowd in Cuttack. He had to bide his time with wickets falling and was 8 from 14 balls going into the last two overs. In the final two, he smashed two sixes and two fours to finish on 30* off 21, propelling India to a fighting total of 148/6.
Shedding more light on Karthik`s role, Shreyas said: "It`s definitely something we have strategised earlier as well. We had seven overs left and Axar Patel is someone who can take singles, who can keep rotating the strike. And we didn`t require someone to come in and start hitting from ball one at that point of time. Even DK [Karthik] can do that obviously but DK has been a really good asset for us after 15 overs where he can come and straightaway slog the ball. Even he found it difficult to start well today. Obviously, the wicket played a huge role in today`s game, but we will be using this strategy in the next games as well."
India and South Africa will now be squaring off for the third T20I on Tuesday at Vishakhapatnam.
