Magnificent Prasidh helped India win the series against West Indies

Despite some much-improved performance in the second One Day International at Ahmedabad, West Indies team couldn’t cross the line as the men in blue defeated them by 44 runs. Rohit Sharma, the newly appointed captain of the Indian team began his era in style and all thanks to the Indian bowlers. Batting first, the team could post only 237 runs and it was Prasidh Krishna’s brilliant bowling in the up front that helped India seal the series in the second match itself.

Team India went in a new direction on Wednesday as the team management has sent Rishabh Pant to open the innings instead of KL Rahul. This bold and brave call will definitely open up a space in the middle order where the team can play an extra all-rounder in the future. However, Rishabh Pant failed to capitalise as he was dismissed at just 18. It is important to note that this was his first game as an opener and he needs to be given a lot of opportunities to seal the position. Something that is not possible at the moment as Shikhar Dhawan will make his return in the 3rd ODI.

The West Indian bowlers were brilliant as well. Just before the important Indian T20 League auction, Odean Smith showed how good he can be with the bowl and then with the bat. Despite some early wickets of Rohit, Pant and Kohli, KL Rahul and Suryakumar Yadav helped the team reach a defendable total. Rahul was run-out when he was batting at 49 while Yadav made 64. With Washington Sundar’s 24 and Deepak Hooda’s 29, the team put 237 on board.

With two early wickets of Brandon King and Darren Bravo, team India was in the driving seat right from the start. The tension however was there as the total that India made was not really great. At the time, they were under a lot of pressure when Akeal Hosein and Odean Smith were batting and it looked like the Caribbeans would take it home. Things changed when Virat Kohli took a brilliant catch of Washington’s delivery to dismiss Odean.  Later Krishna took his fourth wicket by dismissing Kemar Roach.

The Man of the Match was rightfully adjudged to Prasidh Krishna for his match winning performance. After his performance in the post-match press conference, the speedster said, “It has been almost a year since I made my debut for India. I have been striving to get more consistent since then”. He added, “I remember, when I started off, I used to get excited and had too many emotions running through. But over time, we practised together as a team, We have had plans and we were very clear on what we wanted to work on. I’m glad it paid off today”. The captain praised this young pacer as well. If reports are to be believed, he might also earn his red ball cap in the series against Sri Lanka.