After India’s shock 3-2 loss to West Indies in the T20I series, former Pakistan capatain Salman Butt said that such a defeat will surely dent the confidence of the Hardik Pandya-led side. Brandon King‘s superb unbeaten 85-run knock helped the Caribbean team to register an eight-wicket win over India in the series-deciding fifth T20I in Lauderhill, Florida on Sunday. The Rovman Powell-led side won the first two matches before India bounced back to level the score. In the final game, Windies dominated India and registered a comfortable victory.
“It doesn’t matter what the format is or who the opposition is. Winning does boost the side’s confidence for their next assignment. (Similarly) a defeat surely dents confidence,” Butt said in a show on his YouTube channel.
“For any team, such a defeat surely dents confidence,” he added.
It is worth noting that India rested veteran players like Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli, Ravindra Jadeja and Mohammed Shami for the T20I series against West Indies. A new batch included some debutants in Yashasvi Jaiswal, Tilak Varma and Mukesh Kumar.
Butt was critical of the young Indian team — that also had the likes of star players in Hardik Pandya, Shubman Gill, Sanju Samson and Suryakumar Yadav — after its series loss to Windies.
“Many would say that it was a T20I series, and several of India’s top players were missing. But at the same time, this is India’s normal practice. It wasn’t the first time that a young side was picked. It also wasn’t that West Indies are a very big team, and it was very difficult for India to beat them,” Butt added. (NDTSports)
