Indian team suffered an unlikely defeat at the hands of the West Indies in the second ODI as the new batch of batters crumbled after openers Ishan Kishan and Shubman Gill had added 90 runs for first wicket.
Put into bat by West Indies captain Shai Hope, India could only manage 181 runs with the last 9 wickets falling for 91 runs. In response, Hope led from the front with a brilliant unbeaten fifty and with Keacy Carty making 48*, the home side won by 6 wickets to level the 3-match ODI series 1-1.
Indian team management had experimented in the first ODI by holding back Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli in the chase of 114 runs, which almost came to a close match. And in the second match, Rahul Dravid and management decided to rest both senior batters and bring in Akshar Patel and Sanju Samson.
Former Pakistan batter Salman Butt shared his thoughts on how India can solve the matter and firmly stated that the current India team lacks players who can ideally replace Rohit or Virat.
“Clearly, Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma didn’t play so everyone was on their own. They missed the duo’s presence. Earlier, when the likes of Dhoni and other main players were rested, Suresh Raina, Gautam Gambhir or Yuvraj Singh would take care of the batting in their absence,” Butt said on his YouTube channel.
He suggested Rohit Sharma to bat at no.3 and Kohli drop down to no.4 with experienced Shikhar Dhawan opening the innings with Shubman Gill to bring experience in the batting order.
“But the current players haven’t been able to establish themselves in ODI cricket. Before the World Cup, they have to sort it out. I think the way ODIs are played, if the new players aren’t able to perform on frequent basis, maybe you can have Shikhar Dhawan and Shubman Gill opening, and maybe Rohit Sharma can come one down with Virat Kohli at 4,” he added.
“Then you can have Suryakumar and other players like KL Rahul. There are 3-4 players in this team who play in the opening role, and when they came down, the output isn’t the same,” he further added.
India and West Indies will play in the third ODI on August 1 in Trinidad.
