India deserved that defeat. Their backup options when Bhuvi and Bumrah are not around was heavily tested and they came up a cropper. To me, its time to hand Ishant Sharma a return to the ODI squad. He has been in stellar form recently and deserves another chance. His experience when Bhuvi or Bumrah are unavailable, will be very handy. Who knows, Ishant might even knock out one of those two guys for a spot in the XI.
Great that the middle order was tested today. The failure is tough, but this series is part of the World Cup prep and it doesnt hurt to experience this now than in a WC semifinal or a final (which is what happened in the CT 2017 final for us). I think Raina batted well after the top order went out cheaply. Though his S/R is less than 80, he still put his head down and batted sensibly along with Kohli. I would actually call this innings a 'success' for Suresh Raina. I am sure Dinesh Karthik might have done similar only which says Raina continues to keep his spot. Dhoni batted slow and I didnt understand Kohli's defence when he said "Dhoni was trying to avoid us a big defeat". Who cares if you lose by 160 odd or 60 odd? This is not IPL where net run rate is going to come into question. Dhoni should've gone for the bigger shots much earlier and even if he has gotten out, it would have been fine. There is something about Dhoni and international cricket where he doesn't seem to convert his IPL form into intl form. And to his defence, he rarely gets to bat because the top order wins most games on their own. Hope he bats higher than Raina when situations like this arise.
I wouldn't be too concerned here. I back the team to strike back strongly in the last ODI. Well we have lost to a very good ODI side and that too in their home conditions. Nothing humiliating about this.
I think our tail is too long and it doesn't help that the people guarding the tail are Dhoni and Pandya, who can't exactly be counted upon to perform consistently
Having 4 non batters is really too much in today's time.
Unfortunately Ashwin and Jadeja have lost out of favor in the limited overs squads, for the leg spin of Kuldeep and Chahal. And Kuldeep and Chahal are doing extremely well in their specialist area (bowling) which more than cancels out their non-existent batting prowess. It will be fun if Jadeja can make a late miraculous comeback and squeeze himself into the WC side. ONLY if his bowling is good. If that happens, his fielding and lower order batting can lift India tremendously.
There is a big debate to drop Dhoni (especially now that there isn't a place within the top 4 with the inclusion of KL Rahul). Bring in Karthik as a better finishing option.
A few more failures for MSD and the chorus could get louder. But I personally feel (no bias here, sincerely) that just Dhoni's tactical inputs from behind the stumps alone makes him the 'FIRST NAME' on that team sheet ahead of Virat Kohli.
. Sick of saying this but this what Dhoni has been doing since last 3 - 4 years killing the game by playing an absurdly slow innings few good performances in this year's IPl and chaps here were going gaga over it.
