Virat Kohli defends move not to use Hardik Pandya as a bowler

Hardik Pandya plays a shot during the second ODI against England. Pic/AFP

It was a kind of onslaught that left Indian bowlers out of ideas. The likes of Kuldeep Yadav and Krunal Pandya were left clueless with some clean hitting. None of the strokes that the likes of Jason Roy, Jonny Bairstow and Ben Stokes played against India here on Friday could be described as slogs. No wonder then Indian skipper Virat Kohli and pacer Prasidh Krishna credited England batsmen and at the same time admitted that they could have bowled better.

"We didn't execute too well but I thought they batted brilliantly. It was some of the most amazing batting you'll see when chasing. They totally blew us away during that partnership of Jonny and Ben Stokes. We didn't even have a chance during that partnership," Kohli said during the post-match presentation.

The two 100-plus partnerships took the game away from the Indians. The 110-run opening stand between Roy and Bairstow, and a 175-run onslaught by Bairstow and Stokes off 117 deliveries helped the visitors chased down India's 336-6 with ridiculous ease.

"We could have bowled better; I am not denying the fact but we need to give credit to the way they [England] played as well. We got hit quite bad. That's the game of white-ball cricket today. With four fielders outside the circle for 11 to 40 overs, that's bound to happen," Krishna told reporters.

The other aspect was not giving Hardik Pandya any bowling despite the all-rounder rolling his arm over in the T20I series.

"We need to manage his body going forward. We need to understand where we need his skillsets with the ball along with his batting. We used him in the T20Is but it's a bit of workload management as well. We want to ensure we have Hardik Pandya fit and strong, because he's going to be an important part of the squad," Kohli explained.
Going into the series decider on Sunday, India will also have to rethink their batting approach. They played conservatively in the first two ODIs, scoring 317 and 336 runs respectively. They managed to score 39-0 in the first 10 overs in the first game and 41 for 2 in the second.

With England having a batting line-up packed with power-hitters, it's an approach that involves a bit of risk. Like it turned out on Friday, England chased down the target with more than six overs to spare.

It effectively means that should India bat first again on what is expected to be a similar pitch on Sunday, they need to target a much higher score.