Challenge to accept we are underachieving in foreign conditions, says Ten Doeschate

India assistant coach Ryan ten Doeschate feels the immediate challenge for the current T20 world champions is to shed the “underachievers” tag in foreign conditions and need to understand the process of adapting quickly to varied playing environments.

After being clean swept by Ireland in the two T20Is, India, under Shreyas Iyer’s captaincy, cut a sorry figure in neighbouring England as the hosts thrashed the visitors by nine wickets in the fourth T20 to take an unassailable 3-0 lead in the five-match series on Thursday.

“We have spoken so much about adaptability, it’s easy to say we need to adapt, it’s easy to say but really, it’s a point now where we need to understand the process, what is needed to make those adaptations,” Ten Doeschate said at the post-match press conference.

For starters, the team needs to accept that they aren’t playing well.

“Psychologically and mentally, the challenge for the group is to accept the fact that we are underachieving in foreign conditions and tell the players look there is a big prize two years down the line in Australia.

“Do we want be a team that smashes 250 in India and looks great hitting 80m six at Eden Gardens or do you want to come to places like Manchester, Southampton, where things are slightly different and further down the line the MCG.

“Those were the places do we want to be the team to excel in different conditions and do we have the mentality to make those adjustments. That’s the mental challenge and that’s we need the players to take that on,” he added.

The Indian batters struggled in seam-friendly Irish and English conditions in the ongoing tour, especially after plying their trade for most part of the year in flat Indian pitches, and Ten Doeschate said quick adjustments is key to success to excel in foreign pitches.

“I think Jofra (Archer) and (Josh) Tongue bowled exceptionally well and we haven’t made that adjustment as much as we have spoken about it, we have spoken about the need to evolve and what works in India won’t necessarily work here.

“We just haven’t quite managed to shift from that mindset where we read on whether we are really strong on good wickets and the little adjustments that were needed. I think all the three wickets were little slower, had a little bit of bounce. You can’t play the same way, we trying to address but at the same time our performance have been really poor,” he said.

Ten Doeschate didn’t forget to mention that the only guy scoring runs on this tour is skipper Shreyas Iyer, who wasn’t a part of the T20 World Cup-winning squad.

“The majority of those guys won a World Cup four months ago, one of the guys (Shreyas Iyer) who wasn’t there is scoring heavy runs. But it is disappointing as it has been, it’s really just to take learnings from these games, keep trusting the players and give them that runway given what they have done for the country in the past.”

The Dutchman said with a busy schedule back home, India didn’t get enough preparation time for the tour.

“Ideally, you want to prepare longer for a series but again we came from a series in India. I think I mentioned in the past about balancing freshness and being fair on the players as well, make sure they get to spend a little bit of time at home after World Cup, IPL and then the Afghan series and then we coming here and get four, five days practice is not ideal but one of the takeways from what you seen so far is preparation for different conditions is really important.

“Mentally, you have to be prepared to make that shift ideally, you have to identify things that work in one area don’t necessarily work elsewhere. You need to be open to make those changes a lot quicker than we have done in the last 2-3 weeks,” Ten Doeschate said.

The coach backed T20 skipper Iyer and said he is leading from the front with the bat but needs a bit of time and support to excel as a captain. 

“He is one the guys who has exploited the ability to use the crease and that’s how you have to play in this condition. He has batted really well in all three innings. But again, I don’t want to stand and defend the players and also be over critical but the onus is on the players to have the mindset to accept that the fact it’s really going badly and look at the evidence in front of them.

“Shreyas is a fantastic leader and age-wise, if you are looking at two years down the line in Australia, you have to make some really tough calls, there is going to millions of opinions about it. The immediate backlash of transitioning to a new captain after losing two games against Ireland and 3-0 down in England, I think it isn’t very good. It is important to look at things a little realistically,” Ten Doeschate said.

Ten Doeschate was clear that once Jasprit Bumrah and Hardik Pandya return to the T20 fold, things will look a bit different.

“We have made a few changes to the squad we brought here, Hardik and Jasprit make a big difference to the team. We have got a slightly different squad with different weapons and we need to give Shreyas a little bit of time to grow into that role and the players to adapt to his captaincy style as well. He started really well, leading from the front with the bat. I think he will get his just rewards as a captain.”

The inconsequential fifth and final T20I between the two sides will be played in Southampton on Saturday.