IND vs WI: "Play With Your Strongest Eleven Unless..." - Abhishek Nayar Sends Message To Rahul Dravid

Former cricketer Abhishek Nayar has urged the Rahul Dravid-led Indian team management to field a full-strength team in every ODI game in the build-up to the ICC Men’s Cricket World Cup 2023.

India are currently involved in a three-match ODI series against West Indies away from home. In both games, India made significant experiments while winning the first one and losing the second game.

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In the second ODI, India rested captain Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli. Hardik Pandya was appointed as skipper for the game and due to a miserable batting show, India faced a disappointing six-wicket defeat.

Meanwhile, Nayar opined that playing the best XI several months before the World Cup allows the players to gel together.

“I believe since the time you are six to eight months away from a big tournament, you should play with your strongest eleven unless there is an injury. Play with them only because once you do that, everyone gets to know each other’s strengths and it will help you to experience playing together in different situations and learn,” Nayar was quoted as saying by JioCinema.

The decision to rest Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli didn’t go down well with former cricketer Aakash Chopra, who criticized the decision. He said:

“I don’t know why Rohit and Virat were rested; they haven’t played a lot of cricket because if you see, after the WTC Final there was a break of three weeks and there were only seven days of play in the India-WI Test series.”

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You are relaxing just with the purpose of relaxing – Aakash Chopra disappointed with Rahul Dravid-led coaching staff

Chopra further said that the decision made by the Rahul Dravid-led coaching staff to rest Rohit and Kohli was wrong because the duo hasn’t been playing regularly.

“After that, you play one ODI and leave the next. If you want to leave the T20s aside, leave it. I mean even if you don’t play T20s this year, how is it going to affect anyone because we don’t have the T20 WC this year? Rohit and Kohli anyway, do not feature in T20Is. So, you are relaxing just with the purpose of relaxing.”

Meanwhile, RP Singh said that India should finalize their playing XI as the World Cup is just a few months away. He added that the roles of the players should be clearly defined in the team.

“You should know your eleven as we are so close to the World Cup. At least, you should know the ten key players and keep playing them. Also, as far as batting and bowling are concerned, their role should be similar to how they are willing to use them in the World Cup.”

“So, if Hardik is using the new ball here, they must be thinking of using him during the World Cup with the new ball too, at least for a few overs. But the question arises — can he make an impact with the new ball? Or who are the spinners they will go with and things like that,” he concluded.

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