We’re trying to push limits of what we can do as a team, says ten Doeschate ahead of 3rd T20I

Hyderabad, Oct 11 (IANS) India’s assistant coach Ryan ten Doeschate asserted that the team management is pushing players to their limits to prepare them for the crunch situations that may occur in the next 18 months. With the T20I retirement of legends Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli, the Suryakumar Yadav-led team is trying all its arsenal from the inventory in the lead-up to the important white-ball tournaments including the 2025 Champions Trophy, 2025 Asia Cup and the 2026 T20 World Cup.

“The players are very carefully selected. Ideally, yes, you want to build a strong core of players but this is an overlapping series and the Champions Trophy is coming up, the Asia Cup is coming up and the World Cup coming up. We want to know where everyone stands in Indian cricket,” said Ryan ten Doeschate.

“We are trying to push the limits of what we can do as a team. We have obviously got the quality to do it. And then it is about giving the players the belief to do it in a safe space to know that if it is not going to go right, it is also okay.

“We want guys to expand their own games. We want to move cricket forward like it is going with the times. And we want to be prepared for the big crunch moments that are coming up in the next 18 months,” said the India assistant coach on Friday before the third T20I against Bangladesh.

The former Dutch cricketer stressed giving international exposure to squad members including Harshit Rana in the ongoing series.

“We are trying to expose as many guys as we can to international experience with what we have got coming up. So someone like Harshit Rana we are keen to give a game to. And certainly, the plan originally was to win the series and then try a few new faces for the last game,” he said.

Ryan also emphasised maintaining a balanced mix of batters and bowlers in the playing 11 to give enough options for the captain.

“Balance is so important. You don’t want to get into a position where you have too many (frontline) bowlers, and it’s the same with batters. [Having so many all-round options] does give us a chance to pick a specialist bowler when one is available when we think the difference is big enough to do that. But it gives the captain so many options,” he said.

“It is good to see the depth we have had so far. These guys can fill multiple roles which are so important for balance depending on where we play. You look at someone like Riyan. He hasn’t done it in the series but we see him as someone who can bat a four and five as well as being a finisher. So it is trying to fit as many of those pieces together as we can in these bilateral series. We are still keeping winning as the priority in each series.

“What’s been important in this series is understanding some of the guys that have come into the team for the first time. Two debuts (Mayank Yadav and Nitish Reddy) in the first T20I, which is really important. And just having the guys around – Jitesh and the guys that haven’t played, Tilak and Harshit – and seeing how they operate and what strings we need to pull to get the best out of them because they are going to be important certainly in the next 18-month period,” Ryan added.

–IANS

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