Indian head coach Rahul Dravid was delighted with the way the trio of Tilak Varma, Yashasvi Jaiswal, and Mukesh Kumar stood up on the West Indies tour. The trio made their International debut against the West Indies and impressed one and all with their consistent performances.
Varma was India’s leading run-getter of the T20I series with 173 runs at an average of 57.67 and a strike rate of 140.65.
Earlier on the tour, Yashasvi Jaiswal had also made a bright start to his Test career against the West Indies, scoring a magnum opus knock of 171 runs on debut. The left-hander scored a total of 266 runs in two Test matches and then also scored a match-winning knock of 84 runs in the penultimate T20I of the series against the Windies.
“I thought all the three guys who made debuts for us in this series, stood up,” Dravid said in the post-match press conference.
“Yashasvi Jaiswal in the fourth game, I thought he played a very good innings. He’s shown us what he can do in the IPL and it was nice to see him replicate that in international cricket.
“Tilak Varma, I thought, was really good, to come in in the middle order. He comes in sometimes in very difficult situations. But every time, he plays with a lot of intent, plays very positively, looks to move the game along, fielded brilliantly throughout the series, and showed us he can bowl one or two overs as well. So really positive signs from Tilak and to have that left-hander in the middle order does make a huge difference against some of the attacks that we’ve been playing against.
On the other hand, Mukesh Kumar took two wickets on his Test debut against the Windies. Subsequently, the right-arm pacer snared four wickets in three ODIs versus the hosts at an average of 17.25. Furthermore, he picked three wickets in five T20Is he played on the Caribbean tour.
“Mukesh as well. He debuted in all the formats in this series and I thought he acquitted himself really well. His ability to bowl at the death, sometimes he was called upon to bowl against some really big powerful hard hitters and he acquitted himself well for someone who was just playing his fourth or fifth game. So I think there are some really good positives in the guys who made their debuts for us and hopefully, they take confidence from the series and keep learning as they go forward. They’ll be going to Ireland and get a few more opportunities in the T20 format and I’m sure the more opportunities they get, the better they’ll be.”
The trio was definitely a positive for India on the West Indies tour. India will now take on Ireland in three-match T20I series.
