Young leg-spinner Ravi Bishop ‘variations and skill-sets’ 'and' his ability to bowl at any stage gives the team a lot of options to rotate the bowlers, said India skipper Rohit Sharma on Wednesday (February 16). The 21-year-old from Jodhpur made a dream debut for India, snapping two wickets for 17 runs in his full quota of four overs, a performance which earned him the Player of the Match Award in a six-wicket win over the West Indies in the first T20I here.
“Bishop is a very talented guy, which is why we drafted him into the squad straightaway. We see something different in him. He’s got a lot of variations and skill-sets with him. He can bowl at any stage 'and' it gives us a lot of options to rotate the other bowlers,”. Rohit said at the post-match presentation. “Very happy with his first game for India 'and' he's got a bright future 'and' it's just about us now on how we use him”. Rohit also tried to reach out to Shreya Iyar, who couldn’t be accommodated in the playing XI despite being in good form. “Someone like Shreya Iyar is sitting out, very hard on him not making it to playing XI, but we needed someone to bowl in the middle which is why we couldn’t get him in,” the skipper said.“It’s always nice with that kind of competition going around and a lot of the guys are missing out as well. I’m happy to have that kind of challenges rather than not having players available and not in form. We were very clear with Shreya 'and' we told him we want that option going into the World Cup. Guys do understand what the team wants 'and' all these guys are professionals 'and' they do understand that team comes first”. Iyar was appointed the new captain of Kolkata Knight Riders on Wednesday as well. KKR bought Iyar at the IPO 2022 mega auction for Rs 12.25 crore. Chasing 158 to win, Rohit gave India a flying start with a 19-ball 40 'but' India lost a few quick wickets before Sreekumar ADAV (34 not out) and Venkatesh Iyar (24 not out) took them home. Should have finished that off. We wanted to be a bit clinical in the end. We’re trying to do stuff in the middle. It didn’t work out, but happy with the win. We can take a lot of confidence.“Restricting a great unit like that to 157 was a great effort by the bowlers. With the bat we were not clinical, but we can take learning.” West Indies skipper Kieron Pollard admitted that they were 18-20 runs short. “Between overs 6-15 we only scored 46 in 9 overs 'and' if we had 18-20 more runs during that phase it would have been competitive. After six overs they were in front, but I thought the bowlers 'and' fielders did really well to pull things back,” he said.“Different times call for different things, they have quality bowlers 'and' we have to play it as we see it. The guys are working hard to get things right 'and' again it's just a matter of setting it up properly. The ball was wet 'and' the bowlers were bowling high full tosses and I wanted them to have a fair share to execute. Having said that, it was a very, very good game of cricket.” India will take on the West Indies in the second T20I on Friday (February 18).
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