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Cricket Players'He is the only one you can realistically groom for World Cup': Ojha tells Team India to back 23-year-old youngster
Former India spinner Pragyan Ojha believes that India should “realistically groom” the Indian youngster for the World Cup next year.
Team India secured an unassailable 2-0 lead in the three-match ODI series against West Indies on Wednesday. The Rohit Sharma-led side defeated the visitors by 44 runs in the second match in Ahmedabad, as India bowled the Windies out on 193 in a 238-run chase. The second ODI saw one change in the Indian XI as youngster Ishan Kishan made away for KL Rahul, who returned to the squad ahead of the game.
Kishan had opened alongside Rohit in the first match of the series. Along with the left-handed opener, India also have players like Ruturaj Gaikwad, Shahrukh Khan, and Mayank Agarwal in the squad for the ODI series. However, former India spinner Pragyan Ojha believes that Kishan is the only player India can “realistically” look to groom for the World Cup next year.
“See Ishan Kishan is the only one you can realistically groom for the World Cup,” Ojha said on Cricbuzz.
“Apart from that, they will not want to do too many changes because the players playing right now are all young and newcomers. It's not like they have played 40-50 matches or are coming off after playing a lot of cricket and need a break. It's not like that so when it's all going good I think if you need to give a chance to someone it could be Ishan Kishan.”
Kishan has played in three ODIs and five T20Is for India so far, having made his fifty-over international debut last July against Sri Lanka.
Former India batter Ajay Jadeja, meanwhile, said that India don't need to do “too many changes” for the third and final ODI on Friday.
“The captain has said Shikhar will come in... Other than that, I don't think there's a need for too many changes because neither the tournament (World Cup) is very far nor very close and these players have only got 1-2 chances each. So maybe they should get a long run. Maybe Chahal can take a break,” said Jadeja.
