Rahul Dravid defends decision to rest Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli despite loss in second ODI vs WI

Indian head coach Rahul Dravid faced severe criticism on social media after India lost the second ODI.

India head coach Rahul Dravid has faced severe criticism from Indian fans for his continuous experimental approach against West Indies. Dravid has now come out and defended the decisions he made in the ongoing West Indies ODI series. Dravid said that he will always look at the bigger picture and defended his experimental decisions just two months before the upcoming ICC Cricket World Cup in India. West Indies thrashed India by 6 wickets in the second ODI at Kensington Oval. 

'This was our last chance for experimenting'

The Indian team management decided to rest Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli in the second ODI and promoted Axar Patel to bat at number 4. Defending his decisions, Rahul Dravid said, “This series was our last chance to try out some of our players. We have a few players injured at the NCA. With a month to go for the Asia Cup, we are running out of time in a lot of ways. We are hopeful that some of them will be fit for the Asia Cup and the World Cup”. 

Rahul Dravid talks about Virat-Rohit decision

Indian coach Rahul Dravid feels that the team needs to try on other options available before taking a final call on the World Cup team. He further added, “We have to try out other players and give some chances so that in the worst-case scenario they have some game time”. Talking about Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli he said, “It gives some time to make decisions on players. We just felt that in a series like this playing Rohit and Virat would not have given us many answers”.  

Dravid says he will look at the bigger picture

Rahul Dravid also looked concerned about the injury list of team India players and said, “We will always look at the bigger picture. At this stage in the cycle, with the Asia Cup and the World Cup coming up, in some ways with the injuries that we have, we have to look at the bigger picture. We can’t look at every single game and every single series. If we do that, I think it will be a mistake”. The final ODI between India and West Indies will be played on Tuesday at Brian Lara Cricket Academy in Trinidad and Tobago.