The all-around performance that was expected from Team India in the first ODI against England was shown by the players on the field. Whether it is bowling or batting, Team India’s England dominance was observed. The reason for the depth of batting in this England team was deemed strong before the match. Given this, the Indian camp’s concerns were expressed to me, but in the match, everything happened to the contrary.
Rohit Sharma eased India’s path by winning the crucial toss as there was ideal bowling condition during the first innings. At that time, the ball was swinging and seaming. Experienced Indian bowlers took full advantage of these conditions and the experience with which Jasprit Bumrah and Mohammed Shami bowled in the opening overs of the match, England’s top order shattered in front of him. This was the reason that England’s team was completely on the back foot in the first match and four of its top six batsmen had to return to the pavilion on zero.
The dominance of Indian fast bowlers in this match can be gauged from the fact that all the ten wickets of England were taken by the Indian fast bowlers. I think this will also give a lot of confidence to the Indian team because mostly in India the batsman gets noticed.
But after such a performance, it will definitely increase the confidence of not only the Indian team but also the bowlers. Especially with the way Bumrah is bowling intelligently and reading the pitch conditions. On the other hand, Mohammed Shami has the power to stun the batsmen with his accurate bouncers.
Apart from these, India has two good coordinated batsmen like Rohit Sharma and Shikhar Dhawan in the batting order. As far as Rohit Sharma is concerned no words are enough to praise him. There is no batsman in the world today like him who plays the pull and hook shots so well. At the same time, Shikhar Dhawan not only boosted his confidence through his batting in the first match, but youngsters also got a chance to learn a lot from his batting that when a batsman is scoring runs continuously from one end then how his partner should play.
Anyway, Dhawan was returning to Team India after a long time. He also needed this kind of innings, and now the hope is also that Dhawan and the entire team of India will continue to perform similarly in the next matches because in the coming months there is going to be a T20 World Cup and next year’s ODI World Cup too is not far away. In this sense, Team India needs to perform consistently.
The author is a Dronacharya Award winner and has coached Virat Kohli
