Virat Kohli Impressed With Rishabh Pant, Shreyas Iyer; Praises Shimron Hetmyer For Match-Winning Knock

Indian skipper was in all praise for Shreyas Iyer, Rishabh Pant and West Indies’ star batsman and his former RCB teammate, Shimron Hetmyer, who slammed 139 off 106 to propel West Indies to a famous win in the opening ODI. After losing an early wicket of Sunil Ambris, WI were in a bit of trouble given that they had to chase down a target but Hetmyer didn’t show any nerves and did the job.

With an innings of 139, he put West Indies on the brink of a high-scoring win. After his dismissal, Shai Hope ensured that he does the job.

Earlier in the game, India too lost an early wicket of KL Rahul on a score of 21. Kohli followed him after scoring four runs. Rohit Sharma showed early promise but couldn’t play a big knock.

Coming in at a tough situation, under-pressure Rishabh Pant put up 114 runs for the fourth wicket with Shreyas Iyer to pull the team out of a tough situation. Their knocks saw Kohli heap praises on them in the post-match presentation.

“Very good signs for us with the performances of Iyer and Pant. Myself and Rohit not clicking today gave a good opportunity for the younsters to stitch together a partnership. You try to go in with as many options as you can. We thought six bowling options would be enough. We thought six bowling options would be enough. I don’t think pitch changed drastically, they batted brilliantly. The spinners were getting help but they put pressure on our spinners brilliantly. Hetmyer’s innings was outstanding,” he said.

Team India’s score was 210/5 after Rishabh Pant’s dismissal in the 40th over and the team management probably made a wrong decision to hold back Shivam Dube, who managed nine off six after coming in to bat in the 48th over.

Going into the second ODI, bowling will be the biggest worry for India. They will lok to bring in Yuzvendra Chahal on a slow pitch in Vizag and might drop either of Ravindra Jadeja and Kedar Jadhav for the leggie. The penultimate ODI of the series will be played on December 18.