India’s head coach Rahul Dravid didn’t shy away from admitting failures in the batting department, especially with regards to the long tail after the Indian team slumped to a series defeat against West Indies. Dravid, speaking at the post-match press conference on Sunday, said that plenty of work needs to be put in order to solve the ‘batting depth’ puzzle that has troubled the Indian team for long.

While Axar Patel, at No. 7, remains India’s last recognisable batter, the likes of Arshdeep Singh, Kuldeep Yadav, Yuzvendra Chahal, and Mukesh Kumar are all pure bowlers who can hardly be relied upon to score runs. In comparison, West Indies had Alzarri Joseph, a player who can hit big shots, coming in at No. 11.

“I think in terms of our squad here, probably it did not allow us the flexibility in some ways to be able to change the combinations a little bit. But I think going forward, we have got to look at certain areas in which we can get better. Finding depth in our batting has been an area we are trying to address. We are trying to do the best we possibly can but that is certainly an area we can look at, how we cannot weaken our bowling attack but ensure we have a certain amount of depth in batting,” Dravid admitted.

“As these games are going on, and scores are becoming bigger and bigger, if you look at West Indies, they had Alzarri Joseph coming in at No. 11 and he can hit a mean ball. So you have sides that have that depth. Obviously, we have some challenges on that front and we need to work on that. It’s certainly something that this series has shown us and we need to build on that depth,” he further explained.

India’s defeat against West Indies will lead to plenty of questions among critics and fans, especially considering the next T20 World Cup is scheduled to be held in West Indies and the USA in 2024.