After India’s defeat in the second ODI of the three-match series in the West Indies, coach Rahul Dravid explained the reasoning behind India’s continued experiments.

India’s defeat in the second ODI against West Indies, in Barbados by six wickets on Saturday (July 29), was their first defeat in the format against them in four years. It was brought about by a horrendous batting collapse, where they went from 90-0 to 181 all out.

Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli sat out of the game as Hardik Pandya led India, in a bid to give game time to the other members of who are in contention for a World Cup spot. Sanju Samson batted at No.3 and Axar Patel at No.4, followed by Pandya and Suryakumar Yadav at five and six.

In the first ODI as well, India had moved away from their usual batting order, with Rohit coming at No.7 and Kohli not even batting despite the fact that five wickets had fallen.

After the match, Dravid explained why India have been conducting such major experiments just about two months before the start of the ODI World Cup.

He said that with several first-choice middle-order batters [Shreyas Iyer and KL Rahul] still injured and recovering in the National Cricket Academy, it was imperative that the team was ready for a situation where they might not make it in time.

This series provided India with the best, and possibly the last, opportunity to try out players and give them game time, in case they needed to draft them into the World Cup squad.

“Honestly, this was our last chance to be able to try out some of our players. We’ve got few of our players who are injured, who are in the NCA. With a month to go for the Asia Cup, we are kind of running out of time in a lot of ways,” said Dravid after the second ODI.

“We are hopeful that some of them will be fit for the Asia Cup and the World Cup, but we can’t take those chances and we have to try out other people and we have to give other people some chances so that in a worst-case scenario, at least they have game time behind them.”

India have invested in Suryakumar in ODIs, but he has not been anywhere near his potential yet, and is running out of time to prove himself before the World Cup. Dravid pointed out that Suryakumar would be the most disappointed with himself: “Surya is a really good player, there’s no doubt about it. Unfortunately, I think he will be the first one to admit his ODI numbers probably haven’t been up to his own high standards.”

Dravid also spoke about Shubman Gill and Ishan Kishan, India’s opening pair in both ODIs of the ongoing series. Gill has not had a great tour of the West Indies and is yet to register a fifty, but that does not concern Dravid, who feels Gill has been batting beautifully. Kishan, meanwhile, has now scored three fifties in his last three innings, and the India head coach admitted to being pleased at how he has grabbed his opportunities with both hands.

The third and final ODI of the series will be played on August 1 in Trinidad.

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