Former Indian fast bowler, Venkatesh Prasad, didn’t mince his words when expressing his criticism of the Indian cricket team, especially Rohit Sharma and his fellow players, following their defeat in the second ODI against West Indies in Barbados last Saturday. The team struggled to score runs, managing only 181 runs before being all out. The absence of two senior batters Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli from the Indian Team has already started showing the effects on their performances.
This disappointment came as the Indian cricket team missed an opportunity to achieve a whitewash in the Test series against the West Indies. Unfortunately, rain affected the second match, resulting in a draw.
Taking to social media, Prasad voiced his concerns about the team’s subpar performance in white-ball cricket. He went further, criticizing what he perceived as “celebrating mediocrity” within the team.
Clearly, Prasad showed his dissatisfaction with the team’s recent displays and aims to encourage discussions and improvements within the cricketing community.
“Test cricket aside, India has been very ordinary in the other two formats for quite sometime now. Lost odi series against ban, SA and Aus. Poor in the last two T20 World Cups. Neither are we an exciting team like England nor brutal like how the Aussies used to be,” Prasad tweeted.
“Despite the money and power, we have become used to celebrating mediocrity and are far from how champion sides are. Every team plays to win and so does India but their approach and attitude is also a factor for underperformance over a period of time,” he added.
The batting audition of India’s World Cup aspirants didn’t go as per plan on a bouncy track as West Indies level the three-match ODI series with a comfortable six-wicket victory, riding on superb bowling efforts from Romario Shepherd and Gudakesh Motie.
Indian team management’s decision to rest skipper Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli badly backfired as none of the middle-order batters could cope with pace, bounce and turn, getting all-out for 181 in 40.5 overs in the rain-marred second ODI, on Saturday.
In reply, West Indies survived a lively spell from Shardul Thakur (3/42 in 8 overs) before skipper Shai Hope (63 not out, 80 balls) and young Keacy Carty (48 not out, 65 balls) added 91 runs for the unbroken fifth wicket to close the game in 36.4 overs and break a chain of nine successive bilateral defeats since December 2019.
Rahul Dravid Opens Up On The Exclusion of Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma:
Team India Head Coach, Rahul Dravid, when questioned about the exclusion of Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma in the recent match, explained that the decision was made because simply playing them wouldn’t offer the management a complete understanding of the team’s capabilities ahead of the major tournaments. According to him, trying out other players allows the management to have match-ready substitutes for any potential unfavorable situations that may arise during those significant tournaments.
