India’s men’s national team is going through an eventful few weeks. After the euphoria of the 29th of June, a young team went to Zimbabwe and won a T20 International series, followed by the well-discussed appointment of Gautam Gambhir as the new head coach of India. And now the first ever overseas for the coach Gambhir is over which ended in a pretty mediocre performance during the One Day series after winning the T20I series 3-0.
Interestingly, all three ODIs in the series had the same pattern and a 90s charm to it. In all three matches, Sri Lanka batted first, scored runs at a strike rate below 5 and eventually ended with totals of 230/8, 240/9 and 248/7 respectively but all of those were proved to be good enough to defend. Although India were in a winning position in the first ODI but Sri Lanka pulled back to finish the game in a Tie. But in the second and the third match, the hosts won quite comfortably by 32 runs and 110 runs respectively.
Key Players unavailable
Most of the Indian batters failed to cope with the turning tracks of Sri Lanka and bowlers failed to provide early wickets which was India’s strength in recent times. Interestingly, India played almost the same squad that played in the 50-over World Cup last year when the same players performed exceptionally. Jasprit Bumrah was not there in Sri Lanka but the team would not like to depend on just one player, even if he is the best bowler in the world. Also, they will hope for a return of Mohammad Shami, who was exceptional during the World Cup.
Search for an all-rounder
Also, Hardik Pandya was not part of the ODI squad, and it was clear that Gambhir had identified the lack of top-class all-rounders as a priority area for his team. This resulted in multiple all-rounders getting a chance to play and even people like Rohit Sharma and Shubman Gill getting a bowl. Eventually, this was one successful area of the tour as people can argue that both Axar Patel and Washington Sundar appeared to be ready to replace Ravindra Jadeja in ODI also.
Although Axar clearly has an edge with his current performances but Sundar is also not behind as shown in his Player-of-the-series in Zimbabwe and getting the Player-of-the-match against Sri Lanka in the exciting third T20I when bowled in the Super Over to get India a victory. Even Riyan Parag also shined with the ball in his debut ODI as he finished with 3-wickets but he is primarily a batting all-rounder and team management will expect more runs from him.
Rohit Sharma stands tall
Even the Indian batting also had a familiar story like the 90s. Rohit Sharma played really well and ended as the highest run scorer of the series among the players from both the teams. His 157 runs also came with an astonishing strike rate of 141.44. However, India’s second highest run scorer is Axar Patel who has scored just 79 runs, almost half of Rohit’s tally. This also shows the failure of Indian top order, including players like Virat Kohli and Shubman Gill who got starts but failed to convert to a big innings.
Also experienced players like KL Rahul, Shreyas Iyer and Rishabh Pant failed to make any impact. Shivam Dube got chance and was expected to deliver against spin which is his forte but failed miserably and despite some good performance with the ball would be one person for whom Gambhir will look for replacement. Kohli was also an interesting story, who is now retired from T20I but did not look 100% even during the ODIs. With few key test matches coming for India as part of the World Test Championship, the fans would hope for him to get back to best pretty soon.
Siraj missing his chance
Indian bowlers also disappointed during the ODI series. For Mohammad Siraj, who in recent times had been a menace for Sri Lanka, it was a great opportunity to establish himself as the leader of the pack in Bumrah’s absence but the fast bowler from Hyderabad failed to make any impact and finished with just 3 wickets from 3 matches. Arshdeep Singh also failed to replicate his T20 form and his brain fade moment during the chase in the first ODI was negative highlight for India. Khaleel Ahmed and Harshit Rana was not even tested as India went with pre-dominant spin bowling attacks.
See also: Sri Lanka cricket in search of redemption
Way forward and the perfect XI for ODI
Still, the Indian selectors should trust on this team till the Champions Trophy next year as there are hardly any ODI’s till then to test youngsters like Yashasvi Jaiswal, Abhishek Sharma, Riayn Parag or Tushar Despande in ODIs. But it would feel good for the selectors that there are able replacements available. They should also plan how to go about Ishan Kishan who can be the X-factor for team India.
Taking everything into context, if all the players are fit and available then India’s preferred ODI XI should look like below,
Rohit Sharma (capt), Shubman Gill, Virat Kohli, Shreyas Iyer, KL Rahul (wk), Hardik Pandya, Axar Patel, Washington Sundar/Kuldeep Yadav, Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammad Siraj, Mohammad Shami.
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