After the test series win, South Africa is high on momentum. As they beat India in the first match of the three-match ODI series. Team India is led by KL Rahul in the absence of Rohit Sharma who got injured before the South Africa tour. For a long time, Team India is searching for a batter, who can bat in the middle order and can even ball seam bowling whenever required.
As Hardik is unfit and not available, the team management has given an opportunity to Venkatesh Iyer to do the same role. Iyer, who made his name by giving great performance in IPL 2021 as well as in the domestic tournament was given his ODI debut cap in the first ODI at Paarl.
But surprisingly, he was not introduced in the bowling attack to bowl a single ball in the match. After the match, when Shikhar Dhawan came in the press conference, the same question was asked why Iyer’s services as a bowler were not used.
The reason revealed by Dhawan
Shikhar said that the spinners were doing well and even getting some help from the wicket. Then once we are not able to break the partnership we went back to your main bowlers. This was the reason why Iyer did not roll his arm over in the 1st ODI against South Africa.
The actual words
“We didn’t need him because the spinners did well and there was some turn in the wicket. Fast bowlers were mostly used at the end. In the middle-overs when the wicket was not falling. Our thinking was to bring back the main bowlers to get the breakthrough but we couldn’t do that. Then, in the end, it was important to bring our main bowlers, like our spinners,” said Shikhar Dhawan in the post-match press conference.
It wasn’t easy for the new batsmen to make runs, the set batsmen planned to take it deeply- Dhawan
“Our wickets fell in a heap and that had an impact on us as a batting unit. Of course, from our team, we did not have a century and we did not have a big partnership. I feel both the South African batters batted quite well and they took the innings quite deep,” added Dhawan.
India lost the first ODI by 31 runs and is 0-1 down in the three-match ODI series. The next match will be played in Paarl on 21st January.
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