Indian cricket team was left with many questions after their shocking six-wicket defeat against West Indies in the second ODI match on Saturday, July 29. India suffered their first defeat in the last 10 ODI encounters against the Caribbean side after getting bowled out on just 181 runs while batting first.
Once again, the management tried to test their batting strength and shuffled the playing order, but it backfired in the most embarrassing way. Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma were given a surprise rest despite batting in only two innings in the Test series against West Indies.
Sanju Samson and Axar Patel came in for the veteran duo but both the cricketers failed to make any impact while batting at the no.3 and no.4 role. But fans were wondering the reason behind Suryakumar Yadav's batting position for the second consecutive game and why he is being given a consistent run in the 50-over format despite no impact after 25 games.
Suryakumar played in no.3 role in the first ODI and then batted in no.6 position in the recent match. His average dipped below 24 in ODIs after recording poor scores of 24 and 19 in the ongoing series. Surykumar has set new standards in T20Is but his ODI performances are drawing strong criticism from the fans.
But after the 2nd ODI, Indian head coach Rahul Dravid has come to defend the world no.1 T20I batter. Dravid highlighted his performances in T20 cricket and revealed Surya himself is aware of his concerning numbers in ODIs.
"Surya is a really good player, there is no doubt about that. He has shown that. Especially in T20 cricket, in domestic cricket, in white-ball cricket. He has some very good performances. He would be the first one to admit that his ODI numbers haven't been up to the standards or the standards that he has set in T20," Dravid said in the post-match conference on Saturday.
When asked about Suryakumar's struggles in ODIs, the former Indian captain said that the player is still learning to adapt to 50-over cricket as he hasn't played much competitive cricket in this specific format.
"He's also probably learning ODIs. He has played a lot of competitive T20 cricket through the IPL before he made his debut for India. In One-dayers he hasn't played as much competitive cricket, because there is no IPL for one-dayers," Dravid added.
