Depth in batting is an area we are trying to address - Dravid

Rahul Dravid, the Indian men's head coach, admitted that there is a need to have some batting depth in the side, an aspect of the game where India hasn't caught up with the rest of the top cricketing teams. The lack of batting depth came exposed for the side during the recently-concluded series against West Indies. Even as Dravid announced that the team for the T20I series is vastly different from the one that would be playing in the World Cup, the concerns around that aspect of the game don't change much.

Arshdeep Singh, who was used as India's No 8 in the fifth T20I, has rarely had too many opportunities with the bat in international cricket and has an IPL strike rate of 67.57. Kuldeep Yadav, the most established batter among India's last-four, has a T20I strike rate of 77.95, which itself is significantly better than No 10 Yuzvendra Chahal, who scores at 46.15. Their numbers aren't any more discussion-worthy in 50-over cricket either.

Twice in five games of the T20I series, the lower order was tasked with having to make an impact with the bat. And barring an odd 7-ball 12 by Arshdeep Singh in the first match, there were no noteworthy contributions. The issue was just as concerning in the ODI series that preceded, with the lower order having to bat in the second ODI, but unable to help the cause.

"Our squad (for the world cup) will be a little different to what we have here," Dravid said after India's loss in the fifth T20I, on Sunday. "In terms of the squad that we had here, it didn't allow us the flexibility to have the combination to allow us to make the changes. Going forward, we will have to look at certain areas where we can get better.

"Finding depth in our batting is an area that we are trying to address and do as best as we possibly can. But that's certainly an area that we need to look at, how we can not weaken our bowling attack but have a certain depth in our batting that can go deeper. As the game is going on, the scores are becoming bigger and bigger.

"If you look at the West Indies, they had Alzarri Joseph coming at No 11. He can hit a mean ball. There are sides that have depth, we have challenges on that front. We need to work on that. It's certainly a series that has shown us that we need to build on that depth."

The three-format West Indies tour possibly didn't go the way India would've hoped for, with several missed opportunities. One of the two Test matches was drawn due to rain and cost the visitors crucial points in the WTC cycle. The three-match ODI series went down to the decider and the five-match T20I series was lost. Dravid expressed disappointment at the eventual result but suggested that there were some valuable lessons learned through the course of the tour.

"You get into any series wanting to win it, that's the first thing that we wanted to do," he said. "We didn't tick that off. We didn't win the series, that was a disappointment. Other than that, there were some young guys we wanted to try out, wanted to give them opportunities in the series. We gave a few debuts in the series. There were other people as well that we trialled out in different combinations. From that perspective, there were some positives, some tick marks from some of the players. We can look forward to the future with a lot of hope.

"Here (in T20Is) we did well to come from 2-0 down, but we couldn't close out the series. We did a few mistakes today. Through all five games, we made some mistakes, in the first couple of games and even today. We didn't bat as well as we could have. But that can happen. It's a young team a developing team. There are going to be times when there would be a few ups and downs. Of course, we are disappointed. We would have wanted to get the right result. To come from 0-2 down would have been special. Credit to the West Indies, they are a good T20 side. Playing in their home conditions, they played particularly well.

"We tried to do a few things (in the ODI series) with the World Cup and the Asia Cup coming up. The goals of that (ODI series) were slightly different from what we wanted to achieve, and glad there were some important lessons from that one-day series and got the right result."

One of the biggest takeaways from the West Indies tour, according to Dravid, were the performances of the debutants - Yashasvi Jaiswal, Tilak Varma and Mukesh Kumar. Jaiswal marked his entry into international cricket with a century on Test debut. He followed it up with a blistering 84* in the fourth T20I. Tilak, on the other hand, finished as the highest run-getter in the T20I series, scoring 173 runs at a strike rate of more than 140.

"All the three guys who made their debuts for us in the series, stood up," Dravid said. "Whether it was Yashasvi Jaiswal in that game; he played a really good innings in the fourth game at the top of the order, and showed his ability. He has shown us what he can do in the IPL and it's nice that he could replicate that in the international scene. Tilak Varma was very good coming in the midde order, he came in at some really difficult situations. But every time played with a lot of intent, played very positively, looked to move the game along, fielded brilliantly throughout the series, and bowled one or two overs as well. So really positive signs from Tilak. Having a left hander in the middle does make a difference against some of the attacks that we are playing against."

He also reserved special praise for Mukesh, who has been fast-tracked into the national side and handed debut across all three formats. He played in nine out of 10 games on the tour and returned with as many wickets, at a reasonable economy rate, often bowling the tough overs.

"He (Mukesh) acquainted himself really well. He bowled in the death, some times he was called upon to bowl some really difficult overs against some really powerful, hard-hitting batsmen. There are some really good positives from the guys who made their debuts for us. Hopefully, they will take some positives from the series and keep learning as they go forward. They will be going to Ireland, to get a few more opportunities in the T20 format. The more opportunities they get, the better and better they will get."