India look to pocket 2nd ODI

The hosts are riding on the back of sublime performances by the young team

Pune: Concerns regarding KL Rahul’s form put to rest in the first ODI against England, India have little to worry about as they go into the second ODI of the three-match series at the Maharashtra Cricket Association Stadium on Friday. If Rahul batted himself back to form, the performances of the Indian debutants — Prasidh Krishna and Krunal Pandya — was the highlight of India’s impressive win in the opening encounter.

Following a disappointing T20I series, Rahul found his rhythm in the first ODI, playing an unbeaten knock of 62. Debutants Krunal Pandya (58* off 31 balls and 1/59) and Prasidh Krishna (4/54) too provided the much-needed impetus to the side.

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Riding on the back of sublime performances, India will now look to win the second ODI and take an unassailable lead in the series. Pleased with the performance in the opener, India skipper Virat Kohli after the match had called it “one of our sweetest wins”.

Shreyas Iyer’s absence though will open the door for Suryakumar Yadav to get into the squad and continue from where he left in the T20I series. Iyer hurt his left shoulder in the series opener and might need to undergo surgery.

England, too, had many positives to take from the first ODI despite the 66-run defeat. The biggest positive was the performance of openers Jonny Bairstow and Jason Roy. The duo had taken the team to a score of 131 at the top to set the tempo for the chase.

However, their middle-order failed and the match started to tilt in India’s favour. The visitors’ batting performance, apart from the openers, was dismal and they were all out for 251 despite having a good platform at the top of the innings.

Bairstow on Wednesday admitted that his side failed to capitalise on key periods. “I think our game plan has been very good for the last four years. It got us to where we are at with our ODI cricket. I don’t think even yesterday, we did huge amount of wrong (things). There were just key periods we didn’t capitalise on. We lost the key moments in the game,” Bairstow had said in the virtual press-conference.

I was always confident: Rahul

India wicketkeeper-batsman KL Rahul on Thursday said that he might have registered low scores in the T20I series against England but it never impacted his confidence.
Rahul was out of form in the T20I series against England as he scored just 15 runs in four matches and because of this, he was even dropped for the fifth and final T20I. But the batsman was given a chance in the first ODI and he made full use of the opportunity as he hit an unbeaten 62 to guide India’s score past the 300-run mark.

“I was confident, for a player to come this far, it’s only self-belief that gets him this far. I have always been confident on who I am as a player and who I am as a person. It was never an issue of confidence and self-belief. Like I said, sometimes it’s a sport, you try everything that is possible and which is in your control, still it does not go your way. So you accept it and try to learn from the mistakes you have done. I was always confident, I knew in the nets and the practice sessions, I was batting well.

“If there was a real issue with my batting, then I probably would have been a little under-confident, scoring runs is important and it is everything for a player but for me, I also look at myself at training. If I am preparing well and I am hitting the ball well, my mind is in the right place. Most of the things were going well, just the number chart was not going my way, which is disappointing. When I open the batting, the team looks upto the openers to give them a solid start and score runs, but it never impacted my confidence,” said KL Rahul during a virtual press conference on Thursday.

When asked whether the form of Rishabh Pant has made the competition for the wicket-keeper’s slot healthy, Rahul said: “When you are part of this Indian team, you always know competition would be really high. You can never sit back and feel comfortable like you own your position. That’s the good thing, our team has high talent, players will always come in. As a player in this team, you always try to push yourself and try to get better with each passing day.’’

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