Former Indian wicket-keeper batter Parthiv Patel believes Rohit Sharma gave Avesh Khan confidence and the fast bowler bowled very cleverly after the team won the fourth T20I comprehensively by 59 runs. Khan accounted for West Indies opener Brandon King and Devon Thomas in his fine spell after India had posted a par score of 191 runs.
The right-arm pacer returned with impressive figures of 2-17 in his quota of four overs and bagged the Player of the Match award. In fact, Khan had taken a beating in the third T20I against the West Indies as he conceded 47 runs in the three overs he bowled.
However, the Madhya Pradesh bowler was able to bounce back stronger after he received the backing of captain Rohit Sharma for the penultimate game.
Khan provided two crucial breakthroughs in the PowerPlay to put the Windies on the ropes at 22-2 after 3.1 overs in the run-chase of 192 runs.
Parthiv Patel told Cricbuzz: “He’ll (Avesh) be very happy. We predicted that he would bowl his four overs. That’s what Rohit (Sharma) did. Rohit gave him that confidence and he bowled very cleverly today (Saturday). Avesh was brilliant, the way he came back. He showed that he had the ability to adapt to the situation.”
Patel also gave credit to Rohit Sharma and head coach Rahul Dravid for creating the right atmosphere for all the players.
“Every player who comes into the Indian team wants that sense of belonging, especially in that Indian dressing room. That’s something which Rahul bhai and Rohit Sharma understand really well. They give that confidence to every player that, ‘yes you belong here’.”
In fact, Avesh Khan had also given credit to the team’s captain and coach for backing him after having a couple of ordinary matches.
He had said in the post-match presentation, “I feel really good because I didn’t do well in the last two games. I just focussed on my strengths today, bowling the hard lengths. My coaches and my captain told me that they were backing me. They told me to bounce back and backed me a lot. I am focussing on the next match that is left now. The ball was stopping a bit in the wicket and so I was just mixing my slower deliveries with the hard lengths, which gave me the results. This ground feels like India only, it feels like home. Happy that the crowd came to see us.”
The fifth between West Indies and India T20I will be played in Florida on Sunday.
