The confidence with which the Indian team had landed in the first match of the ODI series against England, that kind of confidence didn’t appear in the second match at all. The victory margin for the Indian team was huge in the first ODI, but the defeat in the second match was even bigger and this is a matter of concern as India was chasing only 247 runs and the momentum in which India’s batsmen are there currently losing by a huge margin of 100 runs is very disappointing.
There is no doubt that the reason for India’s defeat was the haste shown by the batsmen. India’s top order batsman went to score quick runs in the opening powerplay, due to which India’s wickets kept falling one after the other. I think the Indian team should have played the first ten overs very carefully because it was a game of 50 overs and the target was also not big enough, but the thinking of the team looked the opposite. However, the Indian team should keep this in mind that at this point, the England team is playing without its main bowlers. England has neither Jofra Archer nor Mark Wood at present, but in spite of this, batting of the Indian team is quite disappointing. Virat Kohli’s performance in Indian batting is a matter of great concern, mainly because he is an experienced batsman, but despite this, in most of the matches he is seen getting dismissed in the same way, and now the bowlers have also started bowling to him with a similar kind of planning.
The bowlers keep the first few balls in front of Virat, so that he can drive, in such a situation, when a batsman drives the ball, his confidence automatically increases. Similarly with Kohli it is seen that the way he starts hitting the outside balls after hitting some boundaries, the bowlers of the opposition team are taking advantage of it. Here he needs to change his way of thinking a little bit.
The writer has been a national selector apart from being a former Indian wicketkeeper