The 5-match T20I series which is being played between India and West Indies started with a bang for the visitors as West Indies lost the game by 68 runs. The match was played yesterday at Brian Lara Cricket Academy, Tarouba, San Fernando and the hosts decided to bowl first after winning the toss. However, the Indians got a steady start as the openers – Rohit Sharma (64 runs, 44 balls, 7 fours & 2 sixes) and Suryakumar Yadav (24 runs, 16 balls, 3 fours & 1 six) produced a partnership of 44 runs for the first wicket.
While Rohit led from the front, the middle order was not able to contribute well as Shreyas Iyer didn’t even open his account and Rishabh Pant also got out on the score of 14 only. The two Indian all-rounders Hardik Pandya (1) and Ravindra Jadeja (16 runs, 13 balls, 2 fours) also failed in making any impact but Dinesh Karthik once again played a beautiful innings as he scored 41 runs for which he played just 19 balls. DK’s innings included 4 fours & 2 sixes and he helped his team in putting up a total of 190 runs on the board at the loss of 6 wickets. In reply, West Indies could manage only 122/8 in its 20 overs and India took a lead of 1-0 in the series with DK being declared as the Player of the Match.
Prior to this, India also won the ODI and T20I series against England and it seems that Rohit Sharma’s brand of aggressive cricket is suiting well to the Indian squad. Team India may have been playing good cricket for a long time but the truth is that it hasn’t won an ICC trophy since 2013 when India won the Champions Trophy under MS Dhoni’s leadership. The Indian team management is presently focusing on the T20 World Cup which is going to take place later this year in Australia and they will certainly not like to repeat disappointing performance of the T20 World Cup 2021 in which India got eliminated in the group stage after losing matches to Pakistan and New Zealand. At that time, the Indian squad was led by Virat Kohli while Ravi Shastri was the head coach.
Just before the start of 5-match T20I series, the current Indian skipper Rohit Sharma addressed the press conference in which few journalists reminded him of the conservative approach of team India in the 2021 World Cup. Hitman denied all the claims saying that it’s true we did not get good results in the T20 World Cup but this doesn’t mean that they were having conservative approach or they were playing bad cricket.
He added that losing 1-2 matches doesn’t prove that they were not taking chances and the Indian team won around 80 percent matches before the World Cup which would not have been possible if India had conservative approach. However, Rohit Sharma says that now the players have been given more freedom to play their game because performances come easily when freedom is given to the players.
He also asks outside people to have some more patience as he says that the manner in which they are playing, some results may not go their way all the time but this doesn’t mean that the team or players are not good. He further says that they are trying something new so outside people should also bring changes in their style of thinking.
The second T20I match of the series will be played on Aug 1 at Warner Park Stadium.