It’s not a World Cup year, so ODIs have little or no context for India skipper Virat Kohli . However, that should not have been an excuse f...
It’s not a World Cup year, so ODIs have little or no context for India skipper Virat Kohli. However, that should not have been an excuse for the manner in which India sleepwalked through the ODIs.
In the post-match chat, Kohli mentioned that ‘the games were not as bad as the scoreline suggests’ but the fact of the matter is that India just didn’t turn up or they weren’t at 100 percent. They couldn’t defend 347 and 296, couldn’t chase 273, Jasprit Bumrah couldn’t take a wicket in 30 overs, Mayank Agarwal struggled to get runs, Kohli couldn’t score a ton and all of that together resulted in the 3-0 scoreline. It was a collective failure.
And even though the New Zealand squad changes quite a bit for the Tests, this scoreline will give them a mental boost going into the Test series, which begins on February 21. India, on the other hand, will need to get back their focus in time.
Here are a few aspects that they will need to pay close attention to:
Mayank Agarwal and the opening conundrum
Agarwal’s scores since December 25: 1, 3, 32, 0, 0, 24, 37, 29, 32, 8, 0, 34
Since December 25, Agarwal’s highest score across formats is 37. In the India...
