The clock is ticking for Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli in India’s must-win Adelaide ODI | Cricket News
Rain has been a bit of a bother for India in Australia so far. In the first game in Perth, their innings was affected by constant stoppages that didn’t allow the batters to generate any momentum. And now in Adelaide, on the eve of their second game, the optional practice session was disturbed by showers. Still, Rohit Sharma turned up — he knows the clock is ticking for him. In the first game, he got out for eight, and with Yashasvi Jaiswal made to sit out, the former captain knows another failure will start all sorts of conversations. The visuals from the training sessions suggested he trained in earnest, and batting coach Sitanshu Kotak said Rohit, along with Virat Kohli, have looked pretty good in training so far. “They are senior players. They have been batting well in the nets. Don’t think there’s any cause of worry about their form,” Kotak said. While the batting form of ‘Ro-Ko’ is the central topic of this ODI series — chairman of selectors Ajit Agarkar has arrived in Adelaide, along with fellow selector Shiv Sundar Das, to keep an eye on the situation — India also face a must-win situation at Adelaide Oval. It’s a happy-hunting ground for the team, a venue where they haven’t lost an ODI for the last 17 years. The pitch, the dimensions — everything historically helps the Men in Blue, who have won nine games and lost only five here. But the current Indian team, even as it is trying to figure out its best batting combination, is a little short on bowling as well. Jasprit Bumrah and Hardik Pandya are not there, which affects the balance of this attack severely. While Bumrah lends cutting edge to the pace attack, Hardik’s bowling allows India to play Kuldeep Yadav as the third spinner, along with Axar Patel and Washington Sundar.Reddy, Kuldeep Conundrum In Hardik’s absence, it’s Nitish Reddy who is filling the allrounder’s slot, but the team management couldn’t show the confidence to use him as the third pacer in Perth. “Any team would feel the absence of Hardik, but that gives us the chance to see if Reddy can come up with the goods,” Kotak said. But it meant that there was no place for Kuldeep, who has been India’s stand-out spinner across formats whenever he has got the chance. The left-arm wristspinner’s non-inclusion in the XI has also been one of the talking points, with former India offie R Ashwin saying on his podcast that it can affect Kuldeep’s confidence. “If you don’t get selected in the XI despite giving the results, you start doubting yourself. The question pops up in your mind, ‘Am I pulling the team down?’” Ashwin said, drawing from his own example when he had to sit out Test matches in SENA countries. But Kotak insisted that it has nothing to do with Kuldeep’s skill-set. It’s only about the team combination and prevailing conditions, which sometimes keeps the wristspinner out. “We take a call as per the ground conditions and the required team combination. Whether at No. 8 we need an allrounder or whether it is important to have a batting cover, that’s something we need to discuss,” Kotak said, indicating that three specialist pacers will play. If that’s the case, it will be interesting to see if Prasidh Krishna gets the nod ahead of Harshit Rana, who didn’t look too impressive in the first game. Prasidh sometimes lacks a bit of control, but he has the ability to churn out the magic ball. But for all that to happen, the weather needs to hold. For now, it looks all clear on Thursday, and the Indian team would dearly want it to stay that way.
