Despite the absence of seven if their white-ball regulars, which includes Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma, Team India, under the leadership of Shikhar Dhawan, got off to a winning start against West Indies in the three-match ODI series, winning the opener in Port of Spain on Friday by a slender three runs. But despite the match-winning total of 308 posted by India, the batting was criticised by former India cricketer Ajay Jadeja who was particularly unhappy with the performance of both captain Dhawan and young India star Shreyas Iyer.
Iyer scored a 57-ball 54 in the first ODI against West Indies, lacing five boundaries and two maximums. In fact, all three of India's top-order batters managed to get past the half-century mark against West Indies with Dhawan scoring a 99-ball 97.
But what left Jadeja bothered was their inability to get a century against a comparatively weaker bowling attack. Speaking to Fan Code at innings break on Friday, Jadeja opined that Iyer had burst into the scene with a lot of promise which included being a potential future leader of the Indian team since exposing his weakness towards the shorter deliveries, the 27-year-old has been troubled by bowlers across formats.
“I feel for the man. I mean...he walked into the Indian side with so much promise. A year ago we would be thinking about talking about him as the future India captain and leading the side. He starts off great and has a Test match hundred. Suddenly, couple of times he has got out to short balls and not going into the technical factors behind it, but that is playing so much on his mind that you saw that in this innings,” Jadeja said.
{{/usCountry}}“I feel for the man. I mean...he walked into the Indian side with so much promise. A year ago we would be thinking about talking about him as the future India captain and leading the side. He starts off great and has a Test match hundred. Suddenly, couple of times he has got out to short balls and not going into the technical factors behind it, but that is playing so much on his mind that you saw that in this innings,” Jadeja said.
{{/usCountry}}The veteran India cricketer further added that Iyer's innings, like Dhawan, lacked intent and that he should have made most of facing the Windies bowling attack and gone for the century to shut critics.
“The way he approached today was very similar to Shikhar Dhawan. So you need a big score to get out of it. He had a decent game I would say. He would be disappointed though. With this bowling attack, you would want to make the most of it. Get a 100 and nobody will have anything to say. With this score you cannot say that he is over the problem he has had. You cannot look at this game like we did to India versus England. For me, this is a practice game,” he said.