Ian Bishop. (Photo by MICHAEL STEELE/POOL/AFP via Getty Images)
After failing to qualify for the upcoming ODI World Cup, West Indies were very poor in the two-match Test series against India. Following this, many former cricketers and experts raised their concerns and stated that the team isn’t good enough to compete as some even questioned their credibility as a Test-playing nation. In the three-match ODI series, their performance didn’t improve much as the criticism grew in number.
However, in the T20Is, the tables got turned as the Rovman Powell-led side defeated India by eight wickets in the final match to seal the series 3-2. After the completion of the same, former West Indies cricketer Ian Bishop opened up and expressed his emotion stating that despite helping the national team grow, some of his friends and colleagues were asking busy criticizing and asking to get rid of them, which has hurt him a lot.
“I saw some tweets on social media about the state of West Indies Cricket from my friends and colleagues. I would want to remind them that when your friend is hurt, you don’t say get rid of them. You try to find out how to help them. Leave it,” Bishop was quoted as saying by India Today.
India’s experiment in T20I continues
In order to build a core squad for the upcoming T20 World Cup, team India tried a lot of new players in the T20I series against West Indies. Ishan Kishan was dropped after two matches while Yashasvi Jaiswal and Tilak Varma were asked to bowl in the final match of the series.
On the other hand, Axar Patel was given just one over in the series finale and that too seemed confusing, as he is one of the players who’s likely to retain his spot in the playing XI. Overall, India’s experiments didn’t really show results and that is concerning going forward.