England defeated India by 6 wickets in the second ODI on Friday. With this victory at the MCA Stadium in Pune, the visiting team leveled the three-match ODI series 1–1.
Skipper Kohli decided to not use all-rounder Hardik Pandya as a bowling option in Ind vs Eng, 2nd ODI. The Indian bowlers could not do anything special in this match. England scored a lot of runs against the Indian spinners.
Chinaman Kuldeep Yadav proved to be highly expensive as he gave away 84 runs in his spell. Krunal Pandya also conceded 72 runs off his 6 overs. Young talent Prasidh Krishna took two wickets and Bhuvneshwar Kumar bagged one wicket.
Former Indian opener Virender Sehwag expressed his dissent and even slammed Virat Kohli & Co. over their decision to not use Hardik as a bowling option.
In the post-match presentation, Kohli had defended his decision by saying that with Test cricket coming in the next few months, the decision was taken to "manage workload" and not use Hardik as the sixth bowling option.
Reacting to Kohli' statement, Virender Sehwag told Cricbuzz: We now have to play the IPL after this series. You are saying that losing the series does not matter because workload management is important for Hardik. Fielding in the entire match can also cause fatigue to a player, so bowling 3-4 overs to Hardik does not matter much.
27-year-old Hardik was seen bowling in the T20 series against England but he has not bowled in both the ODIs so far. Sehwag said that it could be possible that Hardik himself asked for a break from bowling before IPL 2021. He added that Hardik has not played much cricket since his comeback after recovering from surgery.
Sehwag also said, "Hardik returned to the team after undergoing surgery and then he did not play in Test matches, played five T20 matches and bowled 2-3 overs in them."
Hardik has played 11 Tests, 59 ODIs and 48 T20 Internationals so far. He has 17 wickets in Tests, 55 in ODIs and 41 wickets in T20Is.