India’s stand-in coach, VVS Laxman is very impressed with the squad depth of the Indian team ahead of the 50-over World Cup next year. Even though the team failed to win the opening ODI of the three-match ODI series against South Africa, some of the players looked in great touch.

Although Sanju Samson and Shreyas Iyer have not cemented their position in the Indian ODI set-up as of now, they played with immense maturity in the format. Laxman feels that the selectors will have a very tough time in picking India’s ODI squad for the 2023 World Cup.

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Talking to the host broadcasters, after the opening game, VVS Laxman said, “We have a good bunch of cricketers, they are all looking forward to the series, the competition between them is good, we are spoiled for choices considering the amount of talent we have. It’ll be difficult for the selectors to get the right team going into the 2023 50-over World Cup.”

He further added, “All the youngsters are doing well, they know that they’ll not get too many opportunities once the main players return, but this is a chance to perform well and keep themselves in the hunt when the strongest side is being picked.”

Even after a collapse in the middle order, the South African batters managed to keep their nerves and put up a total of 249 in the 40 overs courtesy of Klassen’s 74 and Miller’s 75*.

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South Africa was in the driving seat after the first innings, while India lost some key wickets upfront during the chase. It was Shreyas Iyer and Sanju Samson who brought back India in the game and after Shreyas was dismissed, Shardul Thakur took charge and played a brilliant knock of 33 runs in 31 balls. However, in the end, Sanju Samson’s 86* went in vain as India fail to chase 30 runs in the final over.