Salman Butt: Clearly, Kohli and Rohit didn’t play so everyone was on their own
India suffered an unlikely defeat at the hands of WI in the second ODI. The home side won by 6 wickets to level the 3-match ODI series 1-1. Indian team management had experimented in the first ODI by holding back Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli in the chase of 114 runs, which almost came to a close match.
Salman Butt firmly stated that the current Indian team lacks players who can ideally replace Rohit or Virat –
In the second match, Rahul Dravid and management decided to rest both senior batters and bring in Akshar Patel and Sanju Samson.
Former Pakistan batter Salman Butt shared his thoughts on how India can solve the matter.
Butt said on his YouTube channel – “Clearly, Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma didn’t play so everyone was on their own. They missed the duo’s presence.”
Butt added – “Earlier, when the likes of Dhoni and other main players were rested, Suresh Raina, Gautam Gambhir or Yuvraj Singh would take care of the batting in their absence.
“But the current players haven’t been able to establish themselves in ODI cricket. Before the World Cup, they have to sort it out.”
Salman Butt further said –
“I think the way ODIs are played, if the new players aren’t able to perform on frequent basis, maybe you can have Shikhar Dhawan and Shubman Gill opening, and maybe Rohit Sharma can come one down with Virat Kohli at 4.
“Then you can have Suryakumar and other players like KL Rahul. There are 3-4 players in this team who play in the opening role, and when they came down, the output isn’t the same.”