Seems like 5 wickets in 2 ODIs against Sri Lanka, including a three-fer on the flat Guwahati pitch, and being India’s fastest bowler and a new exponent in the middle-overs, weren’t enough for Umran Malik to keep his place in India’s XI with Shardul Thakur pipping him over in the first ODI against New Zealand.
India take on New Zealand for a 3 ODI series. In the first ODI on Wednesday, in Hyderabad, Rohit Sharma won the toss and elected to bat first on what is expected to be a batting beauty.
Aggression in pace in the middle overs will be lacking from India today as Umran Malik has been benched for Shardul Thakur, who returns to the side after being dropped from the Sri Lanka series. Umran Malik, who has not gone wicketless in any of his 7 ODIs yet, faces the axe today as India opt for Thakur at number 8 to provide some batting depth. However, this selection is quite debatable.
For one, Malik has been India’s middle-overs enforcer, the pacer who’s got high speeds and can pound the deck hard – none of the qualities Thakur has. Both of them have been known to be slightly on the expensive side. India are hoping that Thakur’s later-order batting can help them get those 20 extra runs, which everyone felt they left out in the first and third ODI vs Sri Lanka.
A number of fans do not concur with India’s selection of Thakur over Umran Malik:
One fan slammed the continuous selection mess of Team India
Another fan disagreed and questioned Thakur’s selection over Malik
This fan even feels India should pick Malik ahead of even the senior pacer Mohammed Shami!
Another reaction:
Teams:
New Zealand (Playing XI): Finn Allen, Devon Conway, Henry Nicholls, Daryl Mitchell, Tom Latham(w/c), Glenn Phillips, Michael Bracewell, Mitchell Santner, Henry Shipley, Lockie Ferguson, Blair Tickner
India (Playing XI): Rohit Sharma(c), Shubman Gill, Virat Kohli, Ishan Kishan(w), Suryakumar Yadav, Hardik Pandya, Washington Sundar, Shardul Thakur, Kuldeep Yadav, Mohammed Siraj, Mohammed Shami
KL Rahul and Axar Patel are unavailable, so Sundar and Kishan gets a game.
