New Delhi, Dec 8 (IANS): Former cricketers like Venkatesh Prasad and Virender Sehwag have called for changes to be made in the Indian team's approach after losing the ODI series to Bangladesh through a five-run loss in the second match on Wednesday.
For the second time in as many matches, India's bowlers allowed Bangladesh's batting order to recover and get over the line to lose the series for the second successive time in the country after 2015. On Sunday, the last-wicket pair of Mehidy Hasan Miraz and Mustafizur Rahman took advantage of India's sloppiness in the last six overs to give Bangladesh a win in the first ODI.
On Wednesday, the visitors' squandered the advantage of reducing the hosts' to 69/6 in 19 overs by allowing Mehidy to hit an unbeaten 83-ball century, and him stitching a 148-run stand with Mahmudullah (77) in a stunning recovery for Bangladesh to make 271/6.
India's bowlers conceded 68 runs in the last five overs, while in the last 10 overs they leaked a whopping 102 runs. With the bat, they had a poor start as Virat Kohli, Shikhar Dhawan, Washington Sundar, and KL Rahul fell within the first 19 overs.
Shreyas Iyer hit 82, Axar Patel slammed a run-a-ball 56 and captain Rohit Sharma made an unbeaten 51 off 28 balls in a late blitz despite an injured thumb. But India fell short of the target by five runs as Bangladesh kept their nerve to maintain their perfect record of not losing a series at home since October 2016.
In his two tweets after India lost the series, Prasad said the side needs to take tough calls like England did to change their approach in white-ball cricket for the better.
"India is innovating in so many fields across the world. But whn (when) it comes to playing Limited overs cricket, our approach is a decade old. England after the 2015 WC first-round exit took tough calls and turned around to become such an exciting team, India need to take tough calls."
"And change approach drastically. We haven't won a T20 WC since the IPL started & last 5 years have been poor in ODIs apart from winning inconsequential bilateral. Haven't learned from our mistakes for too long and are far from being an exciting team in limited-overs cricket. CHANGE".
Sehwag, a former right-handed opener and member of the 2011 ODI World Cup winning team, stated that the Indian team needs a wake-up call, equating their performances with falling stocks and the importance of cryptocurrency in the financial world. "Cryptos se bhi tez gir rahi hai apni performance yaar (Our performance is falling faster than crypto). Need to shake up -- wake up."
India will now aim to secure a consolation win against Bangladesh in the third ODI at the Zahur Ahmed Chowdhury Stadium (ZACS) in Chattogram on Saturday.