After India's disappointing defeat against Australia in the opening match of the ODI series, many blamed team management after Virat Kohli and Shreyas Iyer were dropped in the batting order.
After India's disappointing defeat against Australia in the opening match of the ODI series, many blamed team management after Virat Kohli and Shreyas Iyer were dropped in the batting order.
While Shikhar Dhawan and Rohit Sharma opened for India, KL Rahul was sent at No. 3 and the Indian skipper came in at No. 4. The combination surely did not help and debates about finding the opening pair began again.
The likes of VVS Laxman, Matthew Hayden, Murali Kartik believed that Kohli batting at No. 4 instead of his preferred No. 3 slot was one of the main reasons behind the Indian innings not getting the required momentum.
Talking about the issue, Dhawan said he is ready to bat anywhere for the country in the remaining two ODIs.
“If they ask me to bat at No.3, of course, I’ll do it. Anything for my country, for sure,” Dhawan, who opened the batting with Rohit Sharma, said at the post-match press conference.
“You have to be mentally strong, all the boys are mentally strong, that’s why they’ve been playing international cricket and its part of the journey, sometimes you’ve to switch numbers as well,” he added.
Dhawan scored 74 off 91 while KL Rahul scored 47 off 61 after Rohit was sent back for 16. The two batsmen, however, got out at crucial stages of the match.
“See that is a captain’s choice, KL is batting well, he did well in the last series and he played really well and he played well today,” said Dhawan.
“I feel it is the captain’s choice where he wants to play and he has done amazing at No. 3, maybe I feel, he will think about it to go at number three again,” he added.
Talking about the No. 3 spot, skipper Kohli also insisted that he might have to “rethink” his plans.
“(On batting at 4) We’ve had this discussion many times in the past as well. Because of the way KL (Rahul) has been batting, we have tried to fit him in the batting line-up. But I don’t think it’s gone quite our way whenever I batted at four so probably will have to rethink about that one,” Kohli said at the post-match presentation ceremony.
“It’s about giving some guys opportunities. Every now and then, it’s about putting people up there and testing them. People need to relax and not panic with one game. I am allowed to experiment a little bit and fail at times. Today was one of the days it didn’t come off,” he added.
Dhawan also echoed the captain’s statement and said, “See it is just one bad day in office. We played really well against the West Indies, there all the batsmen did well.”
The two sides will next face each other in Rajkot on Friday. If India wins, the series will be levelled, and India will be aiming for the same.
(With agency inputs)
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