India’s assistant coach Ryan ten Doeschate has admitted that the team management made the wrong call to not opt for a spin-bowling all-rounder for the second ODI of the series against New Zealand. On January 14, India lost the match by seven wickets in the 48th over as Daryl Mitchell scored an unbeaten century at Niranjan Shah Stadium, Rajkot. In hindsight, the former Netherlands cricketer indicated that Ayush Badoni could’ve been a better choice than Nitish Kumar Reddy.
“You know, to bring Ayush [Badoni] into the squad at the very last minute with Washi going down in the game, we thought Nitish should be better suited on this track. And obviously, looking at the way the New Zealand spinners bowled, we could have done with another spinner tonight. But whenever we’re putting teams together, the main message is it’s what we put out there, not who we put out there," Ten Doeschate said in the post-match press conference.
India vs New Zealand series numbers in 2nd ODI
New Zealand spinners were very handy, keeping batters tied down. Skipper Michael Bracewell conceded 34 runs from his quota of 10 overs and bagged the wicket of Ravindra Jadeja. Their on-debut left-arm spinner Jayden Lennox conceded 42 runs from 10 overs and got the wicket of Harshit Rana.
ALSO READ: Big blow to India as star player ruled out of T20I series vs New Zealand
On the other hand, Ravindra Jadeja conceded 44 runs from eight overs and remained wicketless. Left-arm chinaman bowler Kuldeep Yadav was expensive, conceding 82 runs from 10 overs. His only consolation was Will Young's wicket. Meanwhile, pace-bowling all-rounder Reddy bowled just two overs and conceded 13 runs.
Doeschate expected better from spinners
Young and Mitchel shared a 162-run partnership for the third wicket. Doeschate expected better from the spinners. He assured that a review of line and lengths bowled by the spinners will be done. However, he feels that it is not the only reason for the loss.
“We probably want to bowl a little bit better than we did tonight, particularly spinners, like you say, about lengths. But we’ll go back and look at those lengths in more detail. But it’s never just one reason for losing a game. There’s a lot of different things going into that loss tonight," he said.
With the three-ODI series level at 1-1, the decider will be played on January 18 at Indore's Holkar Cricket Stadium. It will be interesting to see if an injured Washington Sundar’s replacement, Badoni gets to make his ODI debut or Reddy gets another chance.