West Indies vs India, 3rd ODI Predicted XIs: Will Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli return for series decider?
When Team India rested captain Rohit Sharma and former captain Virat Kohli for the second ODI of a three-game series against the West Indies, it confused and surprised a lot of people. India made a risky move to find possible World Cup backups, but it didn't work out as planned. On Saturday in Barbados, West Indies, led by Hardik Pandya, easily chased a 182-run target with 6 wickets left.
India tried out a number of different things. The next song they played was Ishan Kishan. They brought back Sanju Samson and put him in the third place. They put Axar Patel at No. 3, making him the eighth new hitter to hit there since the beginning of 2022. They moved up Hardik Pandya and Ravindra Jadeja and put Suryakumar Yadav, who has been battling in ODIs, at No. 6.
Except for Ishan Kishan's move, none of the other ideas worked, and India was thrown out after scoring only 181.
EXPERIMENTS TO CONTINUE?
As India went to Trinidad for the third and final ODI of the series, captain Rohit Sharma and coach Rahul Dravid probably had a lot on their minds.
"Honestly, playing Rohit and Virat in a series like this, with only two or three matches left before the Asia Cup, would not have given us a lot of answers," said head coach Dravid after the second ODI, stressing the need to find possible World Cup players.
"We will always look at the bigger picture," he said.
But since most of the players don't take advantage of their chances, India will have to decide whether to keep trying new things or not. India has won 12 straight ODI series, but there is a chance that they will lose an international series to the West Indies in 2002.
PREDICTED XIs, WI v IND, 3rd ODI
IND: Shubman Gill, Ishan Kishan (wk), Sanju Samson, Suryakumar Yadav, Hardik Pandya (Captain), Ravindra Jadeja, Axar Patel, Yuzvendra Chahal, Shardul Thakur, Umran Malik, Mukesh Kumar.
WI: Brandon King, Kyle Mayers, Alick Athanaze, Shai Hope (captain and wk), Shimron Hetmyer, Keacy Carty, Romario Shepherd, Yannic Cariah, Alzarri Joseph, Gudakesh Motie, Jayden Seales.
If India is really looking at the big picture, it seems likely that India will keep giving chances to the possible backup choices. But it's still unclear if they'll be tempted to bring Rohit and Kohli back.
If India brings back Rohit and Kohli, players like Sanju Samson and Axar Patel, who have only played once so far in the series, might have to move over. Ishan Kishan has played in all 4 games, including the two Tests, so the team might decide to give him a break.