India’s head coach Gautam Gambhir revealed the team would continue to experiment in the ODI format and they are going to give rookie players their chances until the series against Zimbabwe. While Naman Dhir made his ODI debut against the West Indies on Sunday, fast bowler Auqib Nabi Dar received his ODI cap in the second game on Wednesday.
But the fast bowler from Jammu and Kashmir didn’t have a great debut, conceding 84 runs in 8.5 overs he bowled. Thus, the pacer bagged an unwanted record of conceding the most runs by an Indian bowler on debut.
Gambhir said they want to put their bowlers in difficult situations.
Gautam Gambhir said via ESPN Cricinfo, “Just like Auqib got an opportunity today, we will similarly try, at least until the Zimbabwe series, to give other people an opportunity and see what they can offer us in this format. We could have given Auqib a chance in the next match too, when it’s a dead rubber, but in a dead rubber, you don’t have the pressure that comes with the pressure of winning a series. And we all know that the World Cup is all about pressure.”
“Cricket isn’t going to change like that; only the pressure will be different because the World Cup comes once every four years, so we want to put bowlers under pressure.”
On the other hand, Brar was taken for 96 runs in his quota of 10 overs in the second game. Gambhir urged the experts not to be too harsh in their analysis of Brar’s bowling as he is bowling the difficult overs.
“Having Gurnoor bowl in the first 10 overs, bowling at the death, I know people will talk about his analysis, but the more he bowls in tough conditions, in tough situations, the better it is for Indian cricket. Because you can have him bowl in the middle overs and get good analysis or good stats for him; make him bowl defensively, but the more we expose them at such times, the better it is for Indian cricket,” said Gambhir (via the aforementioned source).
The third ODI between India and the West Indies will be played at New Chandigarh on Saturday.
