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West Indies won the second ODI at Bridgetown against India by six wickets to level the series 1-1. Batting first, India were bowled out in the 41st over with just 181 on board.
West Indies chased down the total comfortably with 80 balls to spare and a match-winning half-century by their captain, Shai Hope. Both Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli were rested for the second ODI and Hardik Pandya was leading the team.
Former India cricketer Aakash Chopra is not pleased with the experimentation and felt the senior duo did not require rest for this match.
“I don’t know why Rohit and Virat were rested; they haven’t played a lot of cricket because if you see, after WTC final there was a break of three weeks and there was only seven days of play in the India-WI tests.
“After that you play one ODI and leave the next. If you want to leave the T20s aside, leave it. I mean even if you don’t play T20s this year, how is it going to affect anyone because we don’t have the T20 WC this year. Rohit and Kohli anyway, do not feature in T20Is. So, you are relaxing just with the purpose of relaxing,” said Aakash Chopra on JioCinema.
Another former India cricketer Abhishek Nayar also believes that the strongest team should play.
“I believe since the time you are six to eight months away from a big tournament, you should play with your strongest eleven, unless there is an injury. Play with them only because once you do that, everyone gets to know each other’s strengths and it will help you to experience playing together in different situations and learn,” said Abhishek Nayar on JioCinema.
Former India cricketer Rudra Pratap Singh also emphasized on each player’s role and said, “You should know your eleven as we are so close to the World Cup. Atleast, you should know the ten key players and keep playing them.
“Also, as far as batting and bowling is concerned, their role should be similar to how they are willing to use them in the World Cup. So, if Hardik is using the new ball here, they must be thinking of using him during the World Cup with the new ball too, at least for a few overs. But the question arises - Can he make the impact with the new ball? Or who are the spinners they will go with and things like that,” said RP Singh on JioCinema.