Unperturbed by India’s latest loss against New Zealand in the ODI series, skipper Virat Kohli stated that ODI matches are not relevant to cricket this year, referring to the upcoming T20 World Cup and the World Test Championship.
After defeating New Zealand in a whitewash in the T20Is, India faced back-to-back defeats by New Zealand after the Kiwis defeated the Men in Blue by 22 runs in the second ODI match on Saturday at Auckland. At the post-match presentation, Kohli said, “These were two pretty good games, great for the fans. I am particularly impressed with how we finished the game. First half we let things slip away. I think Saini and Jadeja showed great character but as I said one-day cricket in this calendar year is not as relevant like T20Is and Tests.”
Team India is not playing many ODIs this year, as they will next face the Proteas in a three-match ODI series, which will be their last for 2020. The T20 World Cup will start on October in Australia. The World Test Championship is also currently underway, the results of which will be declared by June 2021.
Virat Kohli said that the team has eked out the positives from the lost series, and are looking to make changes for the third ODI match.
“This was a game where we could have taken chances and capitalised. We didn’t know Saini can be as good with the bat. We want guys to figure out situations themselves. We could definitely consider changes; we have nothing to lose now.“
Debutant Kyle Jamieson was the Man of the Match after scoring the winning 25 runs while batting at number 11 and also took two wickets. He said,
“Bit of a high at the moment. Still kind of sinking it. The game kind of ebbed and flowed. It was pretty simple: we were just trying to get it through 50 overs. Just trying and stick with Ross (Taylor).” He further added, “Relief was the feeling to get the first wicket out of the way and not give too many runs. International cricket is quite high intensity, but it was pretty cool.“
