Team India was ruthless in Centurion despite winning the series and hammered South Africa away by 8 wickets in the sixth ODI match. Virat Kohli scored yet another One-Day International hundred in the run chase and helped India to seal the ODI series by 5-1.
In International cricket, Team India is on a roll at the moment. The ODI series win against South Africa was their ninth straight series win in the ODI cricket. They are going to be one of the toughest contenders for the forthcoming World Cup in England.
But India’s head coach Ravi Shastri feels India is far from being ready for the next World Cup, which will be played in England. “We’re far from ready. This is a great win. But there’s a lot of work to do over the next few months,” Shastri quoted to Times of India.
Also Read: Kohli thanked wife Anushka for support after series win“The next few months will lead to the tour of England, where India is slated to visit post the 2018 Indian Premier League (IPL) and there — England will host the next year’s World Cup — “a picture could begin to emerge.”
Shaz noted that India’s middle-order is still vulnerable and can be exposed on a bad day, where India’s top-three got out early.
“It’s an area that requires work to be done. The top-order has batted beautifully and our bowlers were phenomenal but the fifth, sixth and the seventh slot in the batting order needs to be worked upon. Once we’re done with this series, we’ll have to sit down and weigh all options once again very carefully,” he commented.
“I’ll be the first to admit our middle-order batting has looked ordinary. We failed to convert good starts into big totals. So, there are factors we’re looking at. At the same time, there are players back in India who’ve been doing well in domestic cricket. Over the last six months, we had conveyed (to those who are potential India caps) what the team will be looking at, in terms of skills, fitness, challenges etc. Once this tour concludes, it’ll be time to revisit those conversations.”
Meanwhile, he is very happy with the performance of Indian bowlers in South Africa. “(Yuzvendra) Chahal and (Kuldeep) Yadav have been brilliant and Boom (Jasprit Bumrah), what can I say about him. It’s been a fantastic effort. As I said, we’ll sit and go through all of this once we’re done here,” he admitted.
Also Read: Statical review of 6th SA vs Ind ODI“The most important bit? Look at the middle-order. If we can work on that and improve, there’s no stopping this Indian team.”
India will next play three-match T20 International series in South Africa, which will commence from Sunday in Johannesburg.
