WI vs IND: After second successive defeat, Hardik Pandya blames batters as India go down 0-2 in T20I series

For the first time in 12 years, Team India sustained back-to-back defeats against West Indies, the latest of which came in the second T20I at the Providence Stadium in Guyana on August 6 (Sunday).

SportsTak

• Mon • 07 Aug 2023

For the first time in 12 years, Team India sustained back-to-back defeats against West Indies, the latest of which came in the second T20I at the Providence Stadium in Guyana on August 6 (Sunday). Hardik Pandya-led Men in Blue ended up losing the game by two wickets after making a comeback into the game by picking up wickets at regular intervals. Akeal Hosein and Alzarri Joseph registered a 26-run partnership for the ninth wicket and rolled out Men in Maroon's road to victory.

Batting first, India could only manage to score 152/7 in 20 overs despite Tilak Varma scoring 51 runs off 41 balls with the help of five fours and one six. Skipper Hardik played a cameo of 24 runs off 18 balls with the help of two sixes that helped India post a defendable score on the board. As it turned out, even 152 runs were not enough for the Men in Blue.

After the game, captain Hardik was critical of the batters and said that players need to bat with more responsibility.

"If am being honest that was a not a pleasing batting performance, we could have batted better. 160+ or 170 would have been a good total," Cricbuzz quoted Hardik as saying in the pots-match presentation ceremony.

"With the current combination we have we will have to trust out top 7 batters to come good and hope the bowlers win you games. We have to find ways to make sure we have the right balance but at the same time batters need to take more responsibility. Left-hander coming at 4 gives us variety. It doesn't feel like it's his second international game," the Indian skipper added.

For West Indies, in-form Nicholas Pooran played a blistering cameo of 67 runs of 40 balls with the help of six fours and four sixes. Handy contributions from Shimron Hetmyer (22 runs off 22 balls) and skipper Rovman Powell (21 runs off 19 balls) enabled the Men in Maroon to overcome later hurdle.