Indian captain Hardik Pandya told his batters that they need to take more responsibility and help their bowlers in the future. Yashasvi Jaiswal and Shubman Gill led the way in Saturday’s Twenty20 win over the West Indies in Florida, which tied the series.
After great innings by Shai Hope (45) and Shimron Hetmyer (61), which helped the West Indies tie the five-match series at 2-2, India cruised to victory in Lauderhill with three overs to spare, losing only one wicket along the way.
Jaiswal was unbeaten with 84 runs off 51 balls after hitting 11 fours and 3 sixes. Gill was also very good, scoring 77 runs off 47 balls before Romario Shepherd got rid of him in the 16th over.
“Gill and Jaiswal were fantastic,” said Pandya, who is running the India team without a number of top players. “There is no question about their skills.
“They just needed some time between the wickets.
“As a hitting group, we need to be more responsible in the future and help the bowlers. I have always thought that bowlers win games.”
After losing the first two games of the series, Pandya was glad to see his team show some strength in the third game.
Pandya said, “The last two games we played showed that we worked hard and made sure to play good cricket.”
“There is no favorite in T20 cricket. You’ve got to show up and play well. You have to take the other side seriously. They were up 2-0 because we didn’t play as well as they did.
“We have to show up on Sunday and do the same thing we did today.”
Jaiswal hit his first T20 half-century after doing well in the test series. He said he was confident in his ability to do well even though the format had changed.
“It’s all about how you think. “I trust and believe in myself,” Jaiswal said.
“It could happen if I give everything I have. I just keep telling myself to go out into the world and be myself. I just try to keep things as simple as possible.”