With the plan of testing bench strength working well for India in the first two ODIs against Australia, the team management now faces the challenge as to who they leave out on the bench considering a few first-choice stars who were rested from the first two ODIs will now be available for selection.
Shreyas Iyer, Suryakumar Yadav, Mohammed Shami and Ravichandran Ashwin performed well in the absence of Rohit, Virat Kohli, Hardik Pandya, Kuldeep Yadav and Mohammed Siraj and it’s going to be a problem of plenty for the captain and coach to select the best XI with the senior set to return for the third ODI in Rajkot.
Iyer slammed a century in the second ODI while Suryakumar hit back-to-back fifties. The return of Kohli and Pandya now leaves the team management in a difficult spot.
KL Rahul, who led the side in the first two ODIs against Australia, feels that selection is something that’s the headache of captain Rohit Sharma and head coach Rahul Dravid.
“As players, it’s not really our decision to make. It is the headache of the coach and Rohit when he comes back. Our jobs, roles are very clear. Everyone who gets picked in the XI, has a job to do. Sitting out can be hard after scoring a lot of runs but everyone has been through that and I think it always be that way,” Rahul said in the post-match presentation.
Meanwhile, the Indian batters put up an impressive show in the second ODI as centuries from Shubman Gill and Iyer while fifties from Rahul and Suryakumar helped India score a mammoth 399/5 in 50 overs.
At the toss, Rahul was looking to bowl first and after the match, he asserted that they weren’t expecting the ball to spin much in the second half.
