New Delhi: The Men in Blue skipper Shikhar Dhawan on Wednesday specified that Rishabh Pant is a match winner and we will be backing him while he is going through a difficult phase. Dhawan also suggested Sanju Samson to wait. "Overall you have to see the larger picture and who is your match winner. You analyse and your decisions are based on that," Dhawan said at the post-match interaction.
In the last 9 innings, Pant has scored 10, 15, 11, 6, 6, 3, 9, 9, and 27. Samson on the other hand, batted well in the home ODIs versus South Africa last month. He made 36 36 in the first ODI in Auckland.
Sanju has played 11 ODIs and made 330 runs at an average of 66. His highest score is 86 not out. "Of course, Sanju Samson has been doing really well in whatever opportunity he got.
"But sometimes you got to wait for your chances because the other player has done well and we know based on his (Pant's) skill that he's a match-winner. So, you need to back him when he's not doing well."
Earlier, when the second ODI was called off due to rain, skipper Shikhar Dhawan stated the reason, "We wanted the sixth bowler to come in, so Sanju Samson missed out and Hooda came in."
New Zealand: Kane Williamson (captain), Finn Allen, Devin Conway, Tom Latham, Daryl Mitchell, Glenn Phillips, Michael Bracewell, Tim Southee, Matt Henry, Adam Milne, Neesham, Mitchell Santner, Lockie Ferguson.
India: Shikhar Dhawan (captain), Shubman Gill, Suryakumar Yadav, Shreyas Iyer, Rishabh Pant (wk), Sanju Samson (wk), Deepak Hooda, Shahbaz Ahmed, Washington Sundar, Kuldeep Yadav, Yuzvendra Chahal, Deepak Chahar, Arshdeep Singh, Shardul Thakur, Kuldeep Sen, Umran Malik.