Manchester: Jolted by a thumping defeat in its last game, the Indian team is expected to tweak its batting template from cautious to a more fearless one in the series-deciding third ODI against England here on Sunday.
The team under Rohit Sharma did put up an ultra-aggressive batting show with a great degree of success during the recently concluded T20 International series but the manner in which it chased a below-par target of 247 in the second ODI has left a lot to be desired.
Rohit would put his hand up and admit that he and other veteran Shikhar Dhawan, were a bit on the defensive in the wake of some fine swing and seam bowling from Reece Topley and David Willey.
That Virat Kohli’s endless saga of failures has only compounded the problems is also a big factor but senior openers playing out two maiden overs at the start, didn’t indicate a positive mindset either.
Therefore a change in approach is required and for that a paradigm shift in the mindset while going for the tricky run-chases unlike the first game at the Oval where the game was singlehandedly won by Jasprit Bumrah’s six-wicket haul.
“I want these guys to take the game on and see if they can find something different about their own game rather than looking at the team’s role. If they get the team out of that situation imagine the confidence they are going to get from that,” Rohit had said after the second game.
The approach of going for leather from the word “go” worked wonderfully in T20 Internationals and there is no reason that it can’t work in the 50-over format which many teams see as an extension of two T20 innings.