New Zealand vs India 2020: 3 Indian players who disappointed the most in the ODI series
India suffered their first whitewash defeat in a three-match ODI series since 1989 as New Zealand crushed them 3-0 in the 50-overs format. The Men in Blue had kicked off this tour with a historic 5-0 win in the T20I series however, Virat Kohli and co. could not continue their momentum in the ODI series.
Despite being marred by injuries, the Kiwis brought their A-game to the table and beat their star-studded rivals. The likes of Ross Taylor, Martin Guptill and Henry Nicholls shouldered the batting responsibilities in the absence of Kane Williamson while Hamish Bennett and Kyle Jamieson led the fast bowling attack to perfection.
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The Indian players had a series to forget as they could not play well as a team. Here are the 3 Indian players who disappointed the most in the ODI series.
#3 Jasprit Bumrah
When the series began, the fans would not have expected India's premier pace bowler, Jasprit Bumrah to go wicket-less in all the three matches. He had been off-colour in the T20Is but he seemed to have regained his form in the final T20I. Unfortunately, he could not scalp a single wicket in the three ODIs and this proved to be the main reason behind the clean sweep.
The Mumbai Indians star bowled his full quota of 30 overs in the 3 games, conceding 167 runs at a relatively expensive economy rate of 5.56. The Kiwi players tamed him in the one-dayers as they did not allow him to get a single breakthrough. Jasprit Bumrah's performances might have tensed the team management.
#2 Mayank Agarwal
After ruling Test cricket in 2019, Mayank Agarwal was expected to dominate the limited-overs formats this year. Injuries to Rohit Sharma and Shikhar Dhawan allowed him to make his ODI debut against New Zealand but it proved to be a disastrous series for the right-handed batsman. Agarwal opened the innings for India in all the three games but could not match the expectations.
He had a good outing in the first match where he aggregated 32 runs however, he could only score 4 more runs in the entire series. His average of 12.00 was lesser than that of Shardul Thakur and this may create a big question mark over Agarwal's place in the Indian ODI team.
#1 Kedar Jadhav
It was hard to understand why the team management picked Kedar Jadhav ahead of Manish Pandey for the first two one-dayers. Pandey had done well in the T20I series and should have played at the number six position in the ODIs. Jadhav played a good cameo of 26 runs in the first match however, he could not build a good partnership in the middle when the team needed it in the second match.
Chasing a target of 274 runs, India lost a few early wickets. Jadhav tried to rebuild the innings by playing slow. He was batting on 9 runs off 26 deliveries before he lost his wicket. This innings added more pressure on the other batsmen which is why Jadhav lost his place in the team. The fans had high expectations from Kedar Jadhav after his 15-ball 26 in the series opener but the all-rounder disappointed them.