IND vs NZ, 2nd ODI: Assistant coach Ryan ten Doeschate admits India needs to restore dominance at home

Assistant coach Ryan ten Doeschate on Wednesday admitted that the Indian team needs to restore the fear of touring the country in the minds of the opposition, after New Zealand handed the host a seven-wicket hammering in the second ODI in Rajkot on Wednesday.

New Zealand outgunned India across departments to notch a series-levelling win with more than two overs and seven wickets to spare, riding on Daryl Mitchell’s unbeaten 131 and Will Young’s 87.

Chasing 285, New Zealand responded with 286 for three in 47.3 overs.

“We’re always trying to win every game with sort of managing the medium to long-term prospects of the team as well. But yeah, it’s certainly something we need to get back to, to guys really fearing coming in and playing India,” Ten Doeschate told the media after the match.

This is the second consecutive time that a three-match series is heading into a series-decider, with India winning its previous series against South Africa in the third ODI after losing the second.

India made a winning start to the series against New Zealand by winning the first ODI by four wickets, while it lost the second. The series-deciding final ODI will be played in Indore on Sunday.

The assistant coach admitted that the team management will look in particular at the lengths bowled by the Indian spinners, who were out-bowled by their Kiwi counterparts on a slow wicket at the Niranjan Shah Stadium.

“We still thought 290 was about right. We thought the wicket would get a bit tougher tonight. We didn’t actually mind bowling second,” Ten Doeschate said.

“We probably want to bowl a little bit better than we did tonight, particularly spinners, like you say, about lengths. But we’ll go back and look at those lengths in more detail. But it’s never just one reason for losing a game. There’s a lot of different things going into that loss tonight,” he added.