India vs England 2021: 3 Reasons Why India Lost The Second ODI

India failed to continue their winning streak and succumbed to defeat in the second ODI against England by 6 wickets in a high-scoring game that drifted in one direction. England’s stand-in captain Jos Buttler won the toss and chose to bowl and the Indians again got off to a slow start but accelerated at the end to take the hosts to a total of 336 on the board with the help of KL Rahul’ century.

In reply, England batted brilliantly to dominate the run chase and reached the target at the 44th overs with 6 wickets in hand. The Indian spinners looked very ineffective and toothless in comparison to the England spinners who picked up wickets as well as controlled the run flow. Here are 3 reasons why India lost the second ODI.

3 Reasons Why India Lost The Second ODI:

Kuldeep Yadav:

Kuldeep Yadav yet again proved to be very expensive as he was taken to the cleaners by Ben Stokes and Jonny Bairstow. His lack of match practice was evident and sitting on the sidelines for most of the matches in recent times did not help his cause too. He is most likely to lose his place after his poor outing in the last two games.

He finished with figures of no wickets for 84 runs in his 10 over spell and went at an economy of 8.40 which was a major worry. He did not pick up wickets in the middle overs which meant that England can go after the bowling and brought down the required rate under control.

This hasn’t been the first time that Kuldeep has gone for a lot of runs and his wicket-taking ability has been the question mark in recent times despite his overall numbers in ODIs being good.

Virat Kohli’s Poor Bowling Changes:

The skipper felt the heat in the second ODI when England batsman started to take on the bowling at all ends. Kohli had only five bowlers up his sleeve and he needed to use them wisely to make them effective. But he was very ordinary with his bowling changes and Krunal Pandya could have been used in the powerplay as he has shown it in the past.

Virat Kohli continued to persist with the spinners who did not take any wickets in the middle overs and he could have brought in his main bowler Bhuvneshwar Kumar or a wicket-taker like Shardul Thakur in a two-over burst. He did not rotate the bowlers and the carnage continued from the batting end. He used Prasidh Krishna and Bhuvneshwar Kumar once the game was done and dusted.

No Use Of Hardik Pandya As A Bowler:

India’s theory of going in with five bowlers and not using Hardik Pandya is not going to reap any benefits in a long time. India must ensure that they get at least a minimum of five overs from Pandya as one of the five bowlers could have an off day and the sixth bowler needs to chip in with his bowling.

Hardik Pandya’s bowling in the T20 series was really impressive and it turned out to be the biggest positive for team India from the series. Even if he is able to provide India with four to six overs, it will be really handy as Krunal Pandya has been very expensive.

The team balance gets highly affected if Hardik Pandya doesn’t bowl and India must ensure that they go in with a minimum of six options in the bowling department.