Why Shubman Gill, Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli's Top Form Is A Problem For Gautam Gambhir, Ex India Star Explains
In the first two ODIs against West Indies, India registered convincing victories with the top-order trio of Shubman Gill, Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli doing all the scoring.
India took an unassailable 2-0 lead over West Indies in the three-match ODI series after a dominant victory in the second game in Guwahati. Chasing a massive target of 406, the hosts barely faced any hurdles as skipper Shubman Gill led from the front with an unbeaten 223. Veteran opener Rohit Sharma also struck a century, helping India chase down the target in just 43.3 overs. With the series already secured, India will head into the final match aiming to complete a clean sweep.
Ahead of the third ODI against West Indies, which will be played in Mullanpur on Saturday, former India opener Aakash Chopra highlighted a genuine concern regarding the middle order. In the first two ODIs, India registered convincing victories with the top-order trio of Gill, Rohit and Virat Kohli doing all the scoring.
With the trio consistently piling on runs, the middle order has had little opportunity to spend time in the middle and sharpen its skills. Chopra pointed out that India now find themselves in a tricky situation. While the team would want to provide adequate game time to their middle-order batters, they also cannot afford to leave out the top-order players, especially since they are no longer active in all formats.
"That's a tight rope to walk. You don't want to make them sit out and watch cricket happening. More so now when the players we are talking about play only one format in white ball cricket. So it is almost impossible to rest Gill, Rohit or Kohli. Everybody needs game time. And there aren't enough ODIs," said Chopra on Cricinfo.
"After this, there's New Zealand, then there is Sri Lanka in December, Zimbabwe in January. It's not enough. And then, after the IPL, who knows? So you don't play that much. I don't think there is a foolproof way to prepare your middle order for what to come," he added.
The former Kolkata Knight Riders star also spoke about T20I captain Shreyas Iyer and his absence from the ongoing ODI series, as he is currently away on Asian Games duty in Japan.
"Let's be fair. Right now, even Shreyas Iyer is not there. So he's supposed to be batting at four. But the guy is playing in a different format in a different country right now. You can see it as a blessing that your top three are outstanding. Or you see it as a problem that they're so good that nine out of 10 times, four, five, six are not exposed. But the day they are, they're not ready," he said.
India Cricket Team
West Indies Cricket Team
Virat Kohli
Rohit Sharma