It was an unusual sight when India lost four wickets in the first ODI against West Indies in Barbados, and neither Rohit Sharma nor Virat Kohli came out to bat. However, this was part of their plan, as Rohit had mentioned during the toss that the team wanted to experiment with different strategies before the 2023 ODI World Cup.
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Traditionally, Rohit opened the innings, and Kohli batted at number three. But in this match, they decided to step back and allow the white-ball specialists to get some valuable game time. With a small target of 115 to chase after bowling out West Indies for 114, India opened their innings with Ishan Kishan and Shubman Gill, while Suryakumar Yadav came in at number three. Surprisingly, Rohit batted as low as seventh, and Kohli didn’t get a chance to bat at all.
Rohit expressed that the pitch turned out to be much more challenging to bat on than they had expected. He praised the team’s effort in restricting West Indies to a low total and acknowledged the need to give opportunities to the new ODI players. Even though India lost five wickets, it allowed these players to gain some experience.
“To be honest, I never thought the pitch was going to play like that,” Rohit Sharma said at the post-match presentation. “It was the team’s need that we wanted to bowl first and have a score in front of us. I never thought the pitch would deteriorate so much. It had everything for seamers, for spinners and the run scoring was quite difficult. But restricting them to 114 was a superb effort.”
“We said we wanted to give chance to the guys. Never thought we’d lose five wickets but again it was a good to give some game time to a lot of these ODI guys who have just come in. We will keep trying those things as and when we fell like we have to do it,” he added.
India handed an ODI debut to Mukesh Kumar, who performed well despite the pitch being favorable to spinners. Rohit commended Mukesh’s skills and wanted to see how he performed with the white ball.
“Mukesh has been brilliant. Even in the Test series we saw he can swing the new ball, has got a bit of pace and quite consistent as well. So we want to see what he has to offer. Haven’t seen him much of him so it was good to see what he can do with a white ball,” Rohit said.
Although there might not have been many major takeaways from the match, Rohit was pleased with how the bowlers adapted to the conditions and praised Ishan Kishan’s batting performance.
“The takeaway from this game was the entire effort from the bowlers, how they adapted. No matter what the conditions are you still have to bowl well and our bowlers did that. And Ishan Kishan did well with the bat,” he said.
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