India vs Bangladesh: Three Key Lessons from the second ODI in Dhaka
India’s loss to Bangladesh in the second ODI of the three-match series at Dhaka not only served up another thrilling 50-over game but also consigned India to a shock series loss.
Shikhar Dhawan: No Show as openerHaving won the first ODI, Bangladesh knew a win here would be enough to seal the series, and they got that win once again, thanks in no small part to Mehidy Hasan.
The loss left a lot of Indian fans stunned, but as the old saying goes – you learn a lot more from your defeats than you do in victory.
Keeping that in mind, here are three big takeaways and lessons for India after the second game in the series.
Time to look beyond Shikhar Dhawan in ODIs too?
Shikhar Dhawan’s twilight years in his international career are undoubtedly proving difficult to navigate. He’s been out of contention in T20Is for a while now, and his Test career was over well before that. It leaves him in a strange position as an ODI-only player.
Doubts are emerging over his ability to play even the 50-over format. He is far too tentative at the top of the order, and at a time when teams expect quick starts as the norm, his batting style seems archaic.
It remains to be seen whether the team management would consider moving on from him in this format too, but it seems increasingly likely, given his form has been a concern for quite a while now.
Question marks remain over backup bowlers
This series was seen by many as a chance for India’s fringe players – especially the bowlers – to step up and put their hands up for more shots in the future. However, the series has increasingly exposed how thin India’s bowling is without a couple of key members.
Jasprit Bumrah has been on the shelf for a while and won’t be available for India. Mohammed Shami was going to be part of the series but also picked up a last-minute injury. Without either of them, the bowling looked brittle.
Yes, they took a few wickets this time, but Bangladesh went from 65-6 to 271-7, which reflects very poorly on the bowlers. While this isn’t a write-off on every single bowler, it’s fair to say that doubts persist over some of the bowlers in this squad.
Rohit Sharma serves as a timely reminder of ability – and grit
There had been plenty of doubts over Rohit Sharma’s recent form, and he would have undoubtedly cursed his luck when he suffered a nasty thumb injury that he later described as “some dislocation and some stitches” but which he was able to overcome due to the absence of a fracture.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">What a heroic knock by <a href="https://twitter.com/ImRo45?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@ImRo45</a>! Scored half century 51*(28) and took India closer to victory with an injured thumb. <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/RohitSharma?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#RohitSharma</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/IndVsBan?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#IndVsBan</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/RPswing?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#RPswing</a> <a href="https://t.co/nCFk4KjtCl">pic.twitter.com/nCFk4KjtCl</a></p>— R P Singh रुद्र प्रताप सिंह (@rpsingh) <a href="https://twitter.com/rpsingh/status/1600588299227176960?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">December 7, 2022</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
Coming in to bat at number nine, Rohit scored a quickfire fifty at an imperious strike rate of 182.14 and amassed three fours and five sixes. He was one shot away from winning India the game, but Mustafizur’s final ball of the innings – off which India needed five runs – was one that no one could hit for a six.
While Rohit was unable to win the team the game, he will surely feel confident having played such a knock. Undoubtedly, the hope is that this will help him overcome the run of bad form he’s been in recently.