India were comprehensively beaten by the Kiwis in the 1st ODI. The Kiwis were ruthless with the bat and came out with a clear cut plan on how to tackle the Indian bowlers and came out in flying colors. India failed to defend 347 runs in their 50 overs with the ball which shows how the Indian bowlers were completely outplayed by the Blackcaps batsmen.
Here we look at 3 things India must do to snatch the series
One of the two openers should play a long innings
India are without the services of their 2 premium white ball openers in Rohit Sharma and Shikhar Dhawan. India went ahead to open with 2 debutants and decided to play Rahul at no:5. The talented Prithvi Shaw and the run machine Mayank Agarwal are no lesser players when compared to others in terms of sheer skill and ability to score runs. In the 1st ODI, both the debutants got good starts but threw their wickets without converting their starts into big ones.
India need one of them to stay in the crease at least till the 35 over mark to give the lower order the freedom to go berserk from ball one and also it will help India to post the much needed 20 to 30 runs above the par score if they are batting first.
Strike with the new ball
India failed to pick a wicket in the first ten overs which allowed the Kiwi openers to lay a solid platform for the middle order to do the easy work.
India picked their 1st wicket in the 15th over of the New Zealand innings. India must knock Guptill and Hendry Nicholls early in the New Zealand innings to apply more pressure on the Kane Williamson less middle order.
Hunt in pairs
Indian bowlers should bowl in partnerships and they should make the Kiwi batsmen to take chances against them by attempting false shots. In the 1st ODI, the likes of Guptill, Nicholls, and Taylor played out Bumrah without taking any risk and attacked the other bowlers thereby didn’t allowed the asking rate to get away from their control. India should cut off their over dependency on Bumrah and all the other bowlers should step up if they are to control the Blackcaps.
Auckland will host the 2nd ODI on Saturday.