In the absence of senior players like Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma, the Indian team failed to capitalize in the second ODI against West Indies at Bridgetown in Barbados on Thursday, losing the game by six wickets. The series now stands at 1-1. Though India lost the game, fans’ moods were lightened after witnessing a funny banter between Ravindra Jadeja and Yuzvendra Chahal in the rain-hit second ODI. In a video that went viral, Chahal was spotted teasing Jadeja, who also had a good laugh.
Talking about the game, team India management decided to give rest to regular skipper Rohit Sharma and former skipper Virat Kohli, and clearly, the decision backfired as Indian batters were restricted to just 181 in 40.5 overs in the second ODI on Saturday. Team India lost five wickets for just 23 runs in just 7.2 overs after a crucial opening stand of 90 runs between Ishan Kishan (55 off 55 balls) and Shubman Gill (34 off 49 balls).
After losing both the openers, India completely lost momentum and kept losing wickets at regular intervals. Since the World Cup is on the cards, dropping two of your stalwarts did not make any sense but then India were looking for a few answers, evidently, they did not get one.
In reply, the West Indies team easily chased down the target 182 runs in 36.4 overs with six wickets in hand. Hope played a brilliant knock of 63 runs off 80 balls, including 2 boundaries and 2 sixes. For India, Shardul Thakur starred with the ball by taking three wickets, while Kuldeep Yadav took one wicket.
Despite India’s humiliating loss, head coach Rahul Dravid backed the Men in Blue management's decision to try out new things with the playing XI.
"This (IND vs WI ODI series) was our last chance to try out some of our players. We have a few players injured, at the NCA. With a month to go for the Asia Cup, we're running out of time in a lot of ways. We're hopeful that some of them will be fit for the Asia Cup and the World Cup. We can't take those chances. We've to try out other players and give some chances so that in a worst-case scenario they have some game time behind them,” Dravid said.