Rohit Sharma's decision to make Avesh Khan bowl the final over of the 2nd T20I against West Indies backfired as the pacer failed to defend 10 runs.
India’s winning streak on the West Indies tour came to a halt as the hosts beat the Rohit Sharma-led side by 5 wickets in the second T20I. Put into bat, the Indian batting crumbled as they were bowled out for a mere 138, courtesy of a six-wicket haul by Obed McCoy.
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The home side required 16 runs off the final two overs when Rohit Sharma handed the ball to youngster Arshdeep Singh. The left-handed pacer bowled a spectacular over, conceding only six while taking the important wicket of Rovman Powell. While most fans expected Rohit to go to Bhuvneshwar Kumar (who had 2 overs remaining) for the final over of the match, the India captain threw a surprise as he put his faith in an inexperienced Avesh Khan.
The decision didn't yield the desired results as Avesh conceded 12 runs in the first two legal deliveries. When Rohit was asked about this decision in the post-match press conference, he explained the logic.
“Firstly, there weren’t enough runs on the board. We didn’t bat well. The pitch was playing nicely but we didn’t apply ourselves. But this can happen. When you are doing something as a batting group, you might not always succeed. But we will learn from this. It is all about giving opportunities to these guys. [On the last over] We know what Bhuvi does for us; he has been doing it for years".
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"Unless you give chances to guys like Avesh and Arshdeep you’ll never know. But it is just one game. They have the skills and the talent and it is all about backing them. I am really proud of the bowlers and the team. Targets such as these can get over in 13-14 overs but we dragged it to the last over. I thought the guys executed the plans and really happy with the way the guys bowled. We have to look at some things in our batting. But I will say it again and again, this is the approach we want with the bat. We won’t panic. We won’t change anything after one loss,” said Rohit.
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