Indian team management's decision to rest skipper Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli for the second ODI against West Indies did not go down well among fans and cricket experts. In the leadership of T20I captain Hardik Pandya, India lost the match by six wickets after their middle order collapsed in Barbados on Saturday.
Windies levelled the three-match series 1-1 and the decider will be played at Port of Spain on Tuesday, August 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 (63*).
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Former India opener and commentator Aakash Chopra questioned the purpose behind resting the senior duo ahead of the ODI World Cup. Sanju Samson and Axar Patel replaced Rohit and Virat in India's playing 11 for the second ODI.
“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," JioCinema expert Chopra said.
Another expert 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,” Nayar said.
Former India pacer RP Singh also emphasised 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.”