It was one aspect that cost India most notably in the opening T20I, where the sixth wicket fell with 37 runs required off 27 balls and Kuldeep Yadav, batting at No.8, managed only three off nine when it was required to push the run rate. India ultimately lost by four runs.

“It is what it is,” Hardik Pandya said following that defeat. “In the current situation, we have to play with seven batters and trust them to score maximum runs. I have always believed that bowlers win you games. If your batters are having a good day, you don't need much batting beyond one point.

“We need to figure out how we strengthen our No.8, 9 and 10 as well if we need them to chip in with five-ten runs, though they did that today. We have to find ways to make sure we have the right balance, but at the same point batters need to take more responsibility.”

The interesting thing about this issue, however, is that a long tail impacts a team in an intangible as well as tangible manner. Whilst Pandya and many others have been quick to identify India’s lower order as a point of weakness, if you compare the numbers of the West Indies tail to India’s in this series, they are remarkably similar.

West Indies’ Nos 8-11 scored at 8.57 runs per over, only slightly higher than India’s 8.43rpo. Furthermore, India’s tail managed to strike a boundary from 18.75% of the deliveries they faced, compared to the 11.36% that West Indies managed. West Indies’ tail averaged more (30.00 to 11.25), but towards the back end of the innings, run rates and boundary percentages matter far more given how few deliveries players are likely to face.

However, the issue is that the long tail puts greater pressure on the top seven and can force them to be more conservative with the bat when they would otherwise be looking to force the issue. This was apparent in the deciding T20I in Lauderhill, where Pandya and Suryakumar Yadav scored just 43 runs in six overs due to the fact they knew they didn’t have the strength in depth to attack too much and risk losing their wicket.

“In terms of our squad here, probably it didn't allow us the flexibility in some ways to be able to change the combinations a little bit,” head coach Rahul Dravid told the media after the final T20I loss. “Going forward, we’ve got to look at certain areas in which we can get better. Finding depth in our batting has been an area we are trying to address..., how we cannot weaken our bowling attack but ensure we have a certain amount of depth in batting.

“As these games are going on, and scores are becoming bigger and bigger... So, you have sides which have that depth. We have some challenges on that front and we need to work on that. It's certainly something that this series has shown us and we need to build on that depth.”

For India, this is an area that may well be solved away from the stats sheet. Just as they did against West Indies, the performance of India’s tail, in isolation at least, actually compares favourably to the rest of the world game. Over the last year, their run-rate is the fourth highest at 8.65 and so is their boundary percentage at 16.66. When called upon, their tail has not performed unusually poorly by any means.

Nevertheless, India will be desperate to develop an all-rounder before the 2024 T20 World Cup with the likes of Venkatesh Iyer, Shivam Dube and Washington Sundar all options. The problem they face, however, is that opportunities will be few and far between with only 14 T20Is scheduled between now and the next World Cup and an IPL where the Impact Player rule drastically reduces the need for an all-rounder. With the ODI World Cup around the corner, it is without doubt a problem for tomorrow, but come November all of India’s attention must turn to the one issue currently plaguing their team: balance.