The series already won on Sunday, India’s focus in the fourth T20I on Wednesday was to challenge themselves and ensure game time for all the players who are in the T20 World Cup squad, captain Suryakumar Yadav said after the 50-run loss to New Zealand
in Visakhapatnam.

“I feel we purposely played six batters today (Wednesday). We wanted to have five perfect bowlers and wanted to challenge ourselves,” he said at the post-match presentation.

“For example, if we’re chasing 200 or 180, we wanted to see how we went about if we were two or three down. But then, it’s fine at the end of the day. We wanted to play all the players who are part of the World Cup squad.”

Experimentation was priority for India on Wednesday. Ishan Kishan, who missed the game due to a niggle, was replaced by left-arm quick Arshdeep Singh, while all-rounder Hardik Pandya didn’t bowl at all. Neither did Shivam Dube.

Putting themselves in a challenging situation could be India’s ploy even in the fifth T20I in Thiruvananthapuram on Saturday, Surya said. The final game of the series will be India’s last competitive appearance before the T20 World Cup that begins on February 7.