Team India lost the second ODI of the three-game ODI series against West Indies by six wickets. They were bundled out for a modest total of 181 inside 41 overs with opening batter Ishan Kishan being the only batter to surpass a half-century. In reply, the hosts cruised to the target within 37 overs with skipper Shai Hope starring with 63* to drive his team home. Here are three key reasons why India lost the second ODI to the West Indies.
Indian openers gave the team a great start with the opening stand yielding them 90 runs in less than 17 overs. However, India lost eight wickets for the next 91 runs as India went from 90/1 to 181 all out. The middle order could not make use of the foundation laid by the openers. Important batters like Suryakumar Yadav and Sanju Samson failed to make their chances count. Skipper Hardik Pandya also failed miserably as it seemed like the Indians had forgotten how to bat. Thankfully, Shai Hope’s knock must have made for a valuable lesson to the visiting batters.
The same pitch produced a lot of help for the Indian spinner in the first ODI. However, it seemed like the spinner had forgotten their skills from the first game. On the contrary, West Indies spinner Gudakesh Motie and Romario Shephard wreaked havoc on the Indian batting order with six wickets split equally between them. For India, pace-bowling all rounder Shardul Thakur remained the best bowler with three scalps. This shows how ineffective Indian spinners were. Last game’s Man of the Match Kuldeep Yadav could only pick up one wicket whereas experienced horses Axar Patel and Ravindra Jadeja remained wicketless.
Talking in the post-match presentation, India head coach Rahul Dravid said that the team management decided to drop Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma to give new faces their chances. However, the question is if this needless experimentation was really necessary at this point in time. There’s only one ODI game remaining before the Asia Cup ODI 2023 gets underway. That is the deciding game of the current series scheduled to be played on Tuesday, August 1, at Trinidad. Now, there’s needlessly more pressure exerted on the team for the final game. Secondly, the batting order is now all messed up and the team management has just one single game to test it out before the crucial Asia Cup ODI 2023 commences.
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