CHENNAI: The series might have been lost, but as India take the field on Saturday for the third ODI against Bangladesh, they would not be thinking about it. In their last white-ball game of the year, India would want to finish on a high. Washington Sundar said as much ahead of the match.
“Obviously, we will look to win. We will look to play good cricket and end the ODI series on a high,” said the all-rounder in the pre-match press conference. “Every game is an opportunity for us to keep getting better, to get the right rhythm, and obviously, perform really well as a team.”
As it has been the case, they have injury concerns for the final match as well. There is no Rohit Sharma, Deepak Chahar or even Kuldeep Sen. Kuldeep Yadav has been drafted into the squad and will probably end up playing for the success the spinners have had so far in this series. What also encourages them to do is the promise Washington and Axar Patel have shown with the bat.
And the TN all-rounder wants to continue to contribute in every way possible. “With the World Cup next year, I want to be the player who could play in any situation, in any sort of combinations, and wherever the team needs. To win games, wherever they ask me to play, I will play. That’s the kind of player I want to be,” he said.
In the absence of Rohit, it will be interesting to see if captain KL Rahul comes up the order or sticks to his role in the middle-order and Virat Kohli moves up as he did in the second game. It might also be an opportunity for the former India captain to regain some form in a format where he has a prolific record. Since his mental health break, Kohli has scored his 71st ton, lit up the World Cup in Australia and scored some crucial runs for the team in the shortest format. That said, his last ODI hundred came in 2019 and he might want to get back to scoring centuries as he used to in the format. For his form in ODIs is vital for India in a World Cup year.
Meanwhile, the focus will be on Rahul as well, mainly for the tactical calls he makes on the field. His captaincy for India has come under the radar in the one Test and the three ODIs in South Africa. And it was the same in the second ODI when India let Bangladesh get to 271/7 after reducing them to 69/6. What’s more, if Rohit doesn’t get fit in time for the Tests, he might just be leading the team in the longer format as well. Which is why, Rahul would want to get all the decisions right and finish the series with a win.
If India lose, it will be their first clean sweep defeat since Rahul Dravid took over as head coach of the team— the last being the 0-3 ODI series loss against South Africa in January 2022. At this point, it seems clear that some decisive decisions are likely to be made by the board before the home series against Sri Lanka. And both the Rahuls captain and coach would need some positives to take from the series before that happens.