Indian Men’s team coach Rahul Dravid believes that the injuries caused to key Indian players like Jasprit Bumrah, Shreyas Iyer and Rishabh Pant are the main reason behind India’s constantly changing playing XI.
Two-time world champions West Indies defeated Hardik’s led India in the second ODI by six wickets to equalize the three-match series 1-1 at Barbados.
The Caribbean side took four years to register their victory against team India in one-day cricket.
Dravid said that this was the team’s last chance to try out new players, a few of our players are at the National Cricket Academy(NCA) in rehab. He believes that they are running out of time on many parameters and he hopes some of the players to be fit ahead of Asia Cup which is one month ahead.
Indian pacer Mohammed Siraj was also rested as a precautionary measure after the first ODI after complaining of a sore ankle.
The pacer flew home along with the remaining test squad members.
Coach stated that they have to be prepared for the worst-case scenario and give other players chances so others have game time behind them.
This gives them the opportunity to make some important decisions and this was the reason behind resting Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli, he added. With only 2-3 matches left before the Asia Cup, the management wanted to give other players a chance so that they could be prepared for further opportunities.
The decider of the series is to be played at Brian Lara Academy, Trinidad on August 1.
The coach stated that despite the loss in the second ODI, they would continue with the experiments.
Rahul Dravid confessed that he was not very happy with the batting performance of the team but he also backed his players by saying that he is not worried about comments on any particular individual of the team.
He said that we are not concerned about the opinion of other players, these are talented professionals our country has and there is nothing to be worried about as they have performed and they are all here to convert the opportunity they have got.
Dravid encourages the team, management and fans to look into the bigger picture rather than focusing on a single game or a series and he also believes that looking into smaller things is not correct and that’s where they all commit mistakes.
Rahul said that they were disappointed about the performance. “ it was a tricky wicket”. He said that the wicket was not an easy one to play. 230 to 240 would have been a competitive total and that’s where the team fell short he affirmed.
The opening duo Ishan Kishan and Shubman Gill gave the team a really good start but the middle order Sanju Samson, Suryakumar Yadav, Axar Patel and Hardik Pandya failed to add up and that restricted the team to 181 runs.
Hardik Pandya Post match:
Skipper hardik pandya stated that the wicket was better in the first game where they easily sealed a victory but he said that they didn’t bat well.
He added that he has to bowl more overs and get his workload up for the upcoming ODI World Cup starting in October.
Shai Hope West Indies Captain:
West Indies skipper Shai Hope led the team to victory by scoring 63 runs. He said that he is happy as his contributions are leading the team to victory. He also said that they are keen to secure another victory.
India is next scheduled to play a three-game T20 series against Ireland before heading to the Asia Cup in September and Prominent pacer Jasprit Bumrah is also expected to make his comeback after 11 months
