Former cricketer Wasim Jaffer feels that Suryakumar Yadav deserves a place in India’s ODI XI over KL Rahul for the first match against Sri Lanka. Rahul, who bats in the middle-order for India in the 50-over format, has not been at his best recently and struggled to score runs in crucial matches. He scored his last ODI century way back in March 2021.
On the other side, Suryakumar has been in terrific form in the shortest format as he recently smashed his third T20I century in the last 6 months.
Jaffer feels that the spotlight will be on the Indian batters who struggled against Bangladesh in the ODI series last year and Suryakumar’s recent form puts him ahead of Rahul in the race for a place in the XI.
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“The red-hot form that Suryakumar Yadav is in, I prefer him over KL Rahul for the first ODI. The focus will be on the Indian batters because they did not play well in the Bangladesh ODIs. The bowlers performed really well there,” Jaffer told ESPNCricinfo.
Rahul recently lost his ODI vice-captaincy to Hardik Pandya after his underwhelming show with the bat. In the Bangladesh ODIs, Rahul scored 95 runs in three matches at an average of 31.66.
Jaffer also pointed out the recent failures of the Indian top order and said that if the Men in Blue want to put 300-plus scores then players like Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli have to play big knocks.
“Earlier, when the strength of the Indian team was the top three with Rohit Sharma, Shikhar Dhawan and Virat Kohli we usually saw centuries on a consistent basis from them. That has not been happening for quite a while now. If India want to go for scores like 280-300 or over 300, then the top 4 has to fire.”
“Shreyas Iyer is in good form, he has been the standout player, has scored runs consistently. But still, Rohit Sharma, Ishan Kishan and Virat Kohli will have to take some responsibility in this series,” he added.
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The former opener further stated that the venue for first ODI – Barsapara Stadium is a high-scoring ground and the spotlight will be on returning stars Rohit and Kohli.
“The Barsapara stadium is a huge venue, there is no doubt about that and we can expect a high-scoring ODI as well. There will be a lot of eyes on Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli who are returning to the team, there will be expectations of a high score from them as well,” he added.
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