Former Indian opener Virender Sehwag expressed his opinion regarding India’s playing XI for the first ODI match against England that concluded on Tuesday (Mar 23). He is clearly not in favor of the chopping and changes the Indian management are doing to the playing XI. According to him, the same rules that are getting applied to bowlers are not being considered for batsmen and he wants some consistency in the selection process.
The former Indian opener was particularly not happy with how things went with right-arm wrist-spinner Yuzvendra Chahal who was dropped from the first ODI. Chahal played in the first 3 T20Is of the 5-match series and was dropped from India’s playing XI since! In the 3 games, Chahal picked up 3 wickets while conceding 119 runs from 12 overs – bowling economy close to 10! He missed the last two T20Is of the series as well as the first ODI of the 3-match series. In his place, India has considered Kuldeep Yadav for the first ODI who was expensive as well. According to Sehwag, India’s wouldn’t have benched their premium bowler Jasprit Bumrah even if he has three consecutive average bowling performances.
On the other hand, Sehwag quoted the case of KL Rahul who despite bagging three consecutive Ducks retained his place in the playing XI. Rahul was dismissed for three consecutive ducks in the first 3 T20Is and scored 14 runs in the fourth T20I before being dropped for the fifth and final T20I of the series. However, he was called back for the first match of the 3-match ODI series in which he scored a half-century and helped India secure a massive win. Had Chahal also been given enough opportunities, he would have been successful is what Sehwag’s opinion was!
“You [Indian management] snub bowlers after one game but you gave 4 matches to KL Rahul then sat him out in the 5th game. So, if you give bowlers that many chances there will be poor games for them too. If this was Jasprit Bumrah and he had 4 moderate outings, will you have thought to exclude Bumrah as well? No, you would have said ‘he’s a good bowler, he will make a comeback,” opined Virender Sehwag in a live-show on Cricbuzz.
“Yuzvendra Chahal is your top T20 bowler, he gives you wickets, and he got 2-3 bad games and now is out of the team. One is a top bowler in ICC rankings and the other is the top batter, so why partiality in them? I don’t understand this concept,” added Sehwag.
If there are match victories and series victories, none of the opinions by the experts will be mattered to the Indian captain Virat Kohli and head coach Ravi Shastri. Let us hope Indian management will put an end to their chopping policy that might prove costly for the players’ career. India have won the first ODI of the 3-match series by a comfortable margin of 66 runs in Pune on Tuesday (Mar 23). The second ODI of the series will be played on Friday (Mar 26).
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