By India Today Sports Desk: India’s coach, Rahul Dravid, has justified his option to omit skipper Rohit Sharma and skilled batter Virat Kohli from the enjoying XI for the second ODI in opposition to the West Indies in Barbados final Saturday. Notably, Rohit and Kohli got a relaxation for the 50-over match, however this resolution did not yield the specified outcomes, because the West Indies secured a six-wicket victory, leveling the collection at 1-1 earlier than the essential decider in Tarouba.
Dravid elaborated on the choice technique whereas addressing the media after the defeat. He acknowledged that it was important for him to evaluate the capabilities of fringe gamers like Sanju Samson, Ishan Kishan, and Suryakumar Yadav forward of the upcoming Asia Cup and ICC Men’s Cricket World Cup later this yr.
“This was the last chance we had to try out some of our players,” Dravid mentioned.
“We have got a few of our players who are injured who are in the NCA (National Cricket Academy).
“With a month to go till the Asia Cup, we’re working out of time in a variety of methods.
“We are hopeful that some of them (injured players) will be fit for the Asia Cup and the World Cup, but we can’t take those chances.
“We should check out different folks and provides different folks probabilities so in a worst-case state of affairs at the least they’ve recreation time behind them and it offers us a possibility to make some selections on gamers
“In a series like this with only two or three matches to go, playing Rohit and Virat would not have given us too many answers.
“With the accidents we’ve within the NCA and a few uncertainty surrounding them, we needed to present a number of the different boys an opportunity so if required they will play.”
While Kishan impressed at the top of the order with another half-century, Samson (9) and Suryakumar (24) squandered golden opportunities to cement their places in Dravid’s squad for the home World Cup later this year as India squandered a 90-run opening partnership before being bowled out for 181 on a difficult batting pitch in Bridgetown.
“We knew it was a tough wicket and never a simple wicket to bat on and we knew we wanted to get 230 or 240 and we felt that will have been an excellent and aggressive rating,” Dravid added.
“We misplaced wickets in bunches after Shubman (Gill) and Ishan gave us an excellent begin.
“But we needed someone to bat until the end and we lost wickets in the middle and were 50 or 60 runs short.”
