NEW DELHI: For assistant coach Ryan ten Doeschate, ensuring that players remain mentally secure is essential as the team management aims to “build a strong core” for Indian cricket over the next two crucial years.
During this period, India will participate in key events, such as the Border-Gavaskar Trophy Test series against Australia in November, the ICC Champions Trophy next year, and potentially the World Test Championship Final in June.
“Yes, we want to build a strong core of players. With the Champions Trophy, Asia Cup (2025) and the World Cup (T20 WC 2026) coming up, we want to know where everyone stands in Indian cricket, and it’s good to see the depth that we have,” Doeschate told the media on the eve of the third T20I against Bangladesh in Hyderabad.
Doeschate then explored the significance of having a broader pool of players to choose from.
“There are guys who can fill multiple roles which are so important for balance depending on where we play. You look at someone like Riyan (Parag) who hasn’t batted much in this series.”
“We’ve seen someone (Nitish Kumar Reddy) who can bat at 4-5 as well as being a finisher. So, it’s trying to fit as many of those pieces together as we can in these bilateral series,” he added.
However, Doeschate stressed that maintaining the right mental state for the players is crucial for this goal.
“We’re trying to push the limits of what we can do as a team. We’ve obviously got the quality to do it, and then it’s about giving the players the belief that they’re in a safe space, to know that if it’s not going right, it’s okay.”
“It’s just about giving them the freedom that they can go out there and do it, and they’re certainly good enough to do it. So, it’s just the mindset of looking to score and looking to hit every single ball in the 120 balls.”
He cited the example of Sanju Samson, who had two disappointing performances in Gwalior and New Delhi.
“If you look back at the first two games, Sanju, getting a quick start in the first game in Gwalior would have been easy for him to knock it around and get a fifty. But you can see he’s trying to push the boundary, and the messaging has been pretty consistent with that.”
“We want guys to expand their own game, we want to move cricket forward like it is going at the time, and we want to be prepared for the big crunch moments that are coming up in the next 18 months.”
In essence, he hinted that Samson is likely to get another opportunity to showcase his skills in the third T20I.
“We try to expose as many guys as we can to international experience. We want to give Sanju another chance, so there are options, and certainly the plan originally was to win the series, and then try a few new faces for the last game.”
Doeschate also indicated that India will continue the new trend of having frontline batsmen like Suryakumar Yadav or Rinku Singh bowl a few overs to support the main bowlers.
“You get to the position where you don’t want too many bowlers, but with the way the batting’s been going, it does give us a chance to pick another specialist bowler, when we think the difference is big enough to do that. But it gives the captain so many options.”
“It’s very rare that all five bowlers or even six bowlers are going to go well on a day, so it’s nice to have an option. Ideally, you want them to bowl a little bit more, but someone like Hardik not bowling in the last game, is a testament to the depth in the bowling team.”
Despite focusing on finer details, Doeschate did not lose sight of the match against Bangladesh on Saturday.
“The messaging from Gauti (Gambhir), the importance of each game playing for your country and also putting yourself under pressure every time, so there’s absolutely no talk about not putting that as the focus for tomorrow. We want to win and complete the 5-0 (2-0 in Tests, and 3-0 in T20Is) series,” he added.
Doeschate mentioned the additional benefit of these less intense series is getting to know more about fringe players.
“Jitesh (Sharma) and the guys that haven’t played, Tilak (Varma) and Harshit, just having them around and seeing how they operate and what strings we need to pull to get the best out of them because they are going to be important in the next 18-month period,” he signed off.