Hamilton, Nov 1 : India captain Shreyas Iyer was pleased about his team’s performances in different conditions over the five-match T20I series against New Zealand but said bowling and fielding would need improvement going forward.
India won the five match series 3-2 after going down in the last two games.
Iyer stressed on the need to field better especially in unfamiliar conditions like they experienced here.
“We still could have been better with our bowling and fielding. We were a bit sloppy, but great learning. Coming overseas, coming to New Zealand, getting to play on such different occasions, different grounds, it was a great learning curve,” said Iyer in the post-match presentation.
It was India’s first series win in a SENA country under Iyer’s captaincy. He had begun his captaincy stint with back-to-back series defeats in Ireland and England.
“The first three games absolutely studied the rhythm for us. And then coming in the last two games, I feel we were in this position where we wanted to experiment and also challenge ourselves a bit more.
“And today was the right opportunity, and obviously, we didn’t live up to it, but great learning, as I mentioned,” said Iyer.
Asked more about the areas of improvement, the captain added: “I don’t want to think much about it, because we’ve got ODIs to play, but the boys are in high spirits.
“It’s definitely something when you come overseas, you are challenged by different aspects of the game. And the more you take the bull by the horns, the better it gets.
“We can brainstorm, and we have to work on a couple of things, especially fielding. That is one aspect of the game we need to improve on. But honestly, it’s not that easy when you come under such dark lights, clear skies. You don’t get that much in India, but a great learning curve.”
New Zealand captain Mitchell Santner rued falling short on key moments in the first three games that they lost.
“We’ll reflect on that, and we know that it was a very tight series. It’s a very good team. Those small moments like you said in the first couple games where, we probably could have won those games or should have. So, the series could have looked a lot different.
“But from a cricketing point of view, there’s a lot of good stuff. The batting was really good, and then the bowling. Guys adapted brilliantly the last couple games. There’s a lot of positives. Obviously, the scoreline shows 3-2 to India, but could have been the other way around,” said Santner.
