Former Indian cricketer Dinesh Karthik has reckoned that the Indian team should continue with their existing playing XI after their thumping six-wicket defeat to the West Indies in the second T20I in Ranchi.
Speaking in an exclusive interaction on Cricbuzz, Karthik believes that if he were in the Indian dressing room, he wouldn’t make too many changes to the playing XI despite the Indian bowlers conceding more than 250 runs in 18.3 overs in the second innings.
“Will they look at an extra pacer if they feel it is required? So maybe Prince in for one of the spinners. At the same time, genuinely, if I were in the Indian dressing room, I would not change it up too much. I think they are playing a strong XI. Obviously, if you want to play Nitish Kumar Reddy, I don’t see how they can fit in anybody. Unless you are resting somebody and the communication is very clear, I don’t see why you should change based on this game,” Dinesh Karthik said on Cricbuzz.
Meanwhile, the Indian head coach Gautam Gambhir shared a piece of advice for the Indian bowlers to find a way to counter the run-flow, especially on flat surfaces. In the 250-run chase, the West Indies batter took only 18.3 overs to chase down.
“You don’t shrug off any defeat. If you want to keep improving, you don’t want to put anything under the carpet. We are a world champion team, so we want to keep improving,” Gambhir said during the post-match press conference.
“And obviously these are tough conditions to bowl. We know that flat wickets with the dew, obviously it’s tough. But we need to figure out the way…to try and stop the opposition, especially when they lost two wickets in the first over and then lost three in the first six,” he concluded.
