India started the ODI series with a loss against New Zealand in Hamilton on Wednesday.
India started the ODI series with a loss against New Zealand in Hamilton on Wednesday.
Batsmen Ross Taylor scored an unbeaten ton and Tom Latham scored 69 as they powered the Kiwi side to their first victory since Indian landed on their shore.
India made many changes to the squad, namely two debut openers to leaving Manish Pandey out to KL Rahul continuing the keep the wickets. Seeing this, former Indian cricketer Gautam Gambhir and team spinner Harbhajan Singh expressed their concerns.
The cricketer-turned-politician felt making KL Rahul bat in the middle order is not the right decision as the opening is best suited for the stylish right-hander.
“I am not sure if it is a great idea to remove KL Rahul from the top of the order. If anything India could have gone with a Rahul-Agarwal opening combination,” Gambhir wrote in his column for the Times of India.
“… Could have Rishabh Pant keep wickets, Rahul is a valuable asset and should be well looked after. Yes, he has done some good work behind the stumps in the games that he has kept. But I am not sure he should be expected to keep in the 50-over format,” Gambhir said.
“The bigger picture is that India is in a commanding position. These phases in sports can prompt some audacious moves. More often than not the sporting luck favours the brave in such situation. Kohli has his work cut out in the absence of Rohit. He will have to present his ‘A’ game if India are to challenge the hosts. Let us all go easy on young Prithvi. He is making a comeback. The word from the Mumbai maidans hasn’t been encouraging but we can do well to give some space to him,” Gambhir said.
As for Harbhajan Singh, he felt both Kuldeep Yadav and Yuzvendra Chahal should have gotten a chance to play.
“I would like to see both spinners playing together - Kuldeep Yadav and Yuzvendra Chahal. This New Zealand team will play fast bowlers on any given day and they will take anyone on. But when it comes to playing spinners, it has always been a case for them. You can get those wickets in the middle overs. So I would like to see both the spinners play together. Maybe leave out Kedar Jadhav and play an extra spinner,” he told Star Sports.
Kiwi cricketer Corey Anderson agreed with Harbhajan and added that it is unlikely to happen considering the size of the ground in Auckland.
“I would like to see both the spinners play for the India side but I think that they will go with only one because of the small size of the ground in Auckland. I think they can bring in a quick or strengthen the batting a bit more with an all-rounder maybe,” Anderson said.
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 "India vs New Zealand")
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