"Winning Series Like These...": Ex-India Star's Stern Warning To Hardik Pandya And Co

Team India suffered a narrow defeat to West Indies in the opening game of the five-match T20I series on Thursday. Chasing a target of 150, the visitors suffered a batting collapse and were restricted to 145/9 in 20 overs, courtesy some fine bowling performances from Jason Holder and Romario Shepherd. Barring debutant Tilak Varma, who looked set for a big total, rest of the Indian batters failed to impress on a batting-friendly deck. The case in the 2nd T20I was no different. Following the defeats, India captain Hardik Pandya was heavily criticised for his tactics.

But, Hardik had backed his young group of players, saying that this team will learn from their mistakes.

However, former India batter Aakash Chopra feels that winning the ongoing series is a must as most of the players in the squad will form core of India's T20I side in the future.

"This is a young team but this is pretty much the core group of players who will play T20I cricket in near future, barring a few changes. So, winning series like these is absolutely key," Chopra said on his YouTube channel.

Newcomer Tilak impressed many with his cameo in the match, scoring 22-ball 39 in the first match and a fifty in the second.

A boundary was the difference between the two teams in the opening game in Tarouba where West Indies prevailed on a slow batting track with an impressive bowling effort at the back-end. In the second match, India fell shy of just 2 wickets in their attempt to win the game.

With three games still left to play in the series, Team India is expected to put a far improved batting show -- both individually as well as collectively.