"The playing XI selection could have been better" - Zaheer Khan on the positives and disappointments for India during ODIs against New Zealand
Zaheer Khan has expressed his disappointment over India's team selections during the ODI series against New Zealand.
The Men in Blue suffered a 1-0 defeat in the rain-truncated three-match series. They lost the first game in Auckland by seven wickets, with the other matches in Hamilton and Christchurch not yielding a result.
While reviewing the series on Prime Video, Zaheer Khan questioned some of India's selections, saying:
"On the whole, I was a bit disappointed with how the management approached the selection process in the ODI series. I think the playing XI selection could have been better. There were definitely some errors being made, some unforced things which we saw."
The former Indian pacer highlighted that Shikhar Dhawan and Co. missed a trick by not playing an extra fast bowler in seamer-friendly conditions. He elaborated:
"Just about understanding that New Zealand is playing four seamers and the Indian team wasn't really backing themselves to play that extra seamer was something which was a trick missed in this particular series."
Zaheer cited the example of the final ODI on Wednesday (November 30) where India would have had to bowl 20 overs of spin if they had to complete their entire 50 overs. He added that the visitors had to take two or three wickets in the initial stages of New Zealand's innings to put them under pressure, which did not happen.
"Shreyas Iyer did very well" - Zaheer Khan on the positives for India
Zaheer picked Shreyas Iyer, Umran Malik and Arshdeep Singh as some of the positives for India, stating:
"In ODIs, Shreyas Iyer did very well. That's something which has to be a positive. Umran and Arshdeep have to be positives. These are the two debutants here. They need a little bit of grooming but they are on the right track."
Shreyas Iyer ⭐🔥
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The cricketer-turned-commentator named Suryakumar Yadav and Shubman Gill as the other gains from the T20I and ODI series, respectively. He observed:
"From the T20 series, we have Surya. He is someone who played that special innings. Unfortunately, in the ODI series, we didn't get that much time to analyze but Shubman Gill also has to be right up there. He played that innings of 50 runs in Auckland and backed it with a nice innings in the previous venue."
Shreyas Iyer moves to No.27 position and Shubman Gill moves to No.34 position in latest ICC ODI batting rankings.
Iyer (129), Gill (108) and Dhawan (103) were the only Indian batters to breach the 100-run mark in the ODI series. While Umran accounted for three dismissals, Shardul Thakur was the only other Indian bowler to pick up a wicket.