The Indian cricket team began their campaign at the Asian Games with a 23-run win over Nepal in the quarterfinal, sealing their place in the semifinal but former India opener Virender Sehwag was not convinced by the win. With the senior Indian team occupied with ODI World Cup preparations, Ruturaj Gaikwad-led young look side started their campaign on a winning note in Hangzhou. India batted first, smashing 202/4 riding on Yashasvi Jaiswal’s century and an unbeaten knock of 37 from Rinku Singh.
Nepal though ended up scoring 179/9, almost nearly managing to pull away with an upset, however Sehwag feels that India need to become a more ‘dangerous’ side, and to do that, the Men in Blue need more ‘explosive’ players like Rinku, and Suryakumar Yadav.
While Jaiswal and captain Ruturaj started the Indian inning on a blistering note with an opening stand of 103 runs, however, once the captain was dismissed, Nepal turned the momentum in their favour. The Rohit Paudel-led unit got rid of Tilak Varma, Jitesh Sharma in quick succession before Jaiswal got dismissed shortly after completing his century.
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After India’s win, Sehwag took to X and pointed out that more explosive players in the mould of Rinku, and Suryakumar who can change the course of a match with their batting need to be nurtured in the T20I side.
“I just feel we have too many batters who play in the same gear. Need to nurture more explosive players who can play top gear, especially in T20 cricket. Many more in the Rinku and SKY mode needed to become a dangerous side,” wrote the legendary opener.
I just feel we have too many batters who play in the same gear. Need to nurture more explosive players who can play top gear, especially in T20 cricket. Many more in the Rinku and SKY mode needed to become a dangerous side.— Virender Sehwag (@virendersehwag) October 3, 2023
Both Rinku and SKY have shown on multiple occasions that they can switch gears at will, while the former is yet to play for India in ODIs, the latter has been picked in the Indian squad for the World Cup, given his ‘X-factor’ which has been pointed out multiple times by both captain Rohit Sharma and coach Rahul Dravid.
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Surya gave good glimpses of himself during the recently concluded ODI series against Australia, getting fifties in the first two ODIs, helping India win the series 2-1.
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