There has been a lot of hullabaloo regarding India’s loss to New Zealand in the three-match ODI series. After winning the opener in Vadodara, Shubman Gill‘s team went down in the next two matches to concede the series, where they were expected to win fair and square, considering the Kiwis fielded a depleted squad. Daryl Mitchell was the man of the series as he returned with two centuries and one fifty, and India had no answers to stop his onslaught. Ever since the series concluded, skipper Gill and head coach Gautam Gambhir have been coping with a lot of flak for the team’s dwindling results of late.
New Zealand defeated India 2-1 in the three-match series. (PTI)
However, former Indian batter Sanjay Manjrekar asked fans to take it easy, saying the bilaterals are just there to give the teams a chance to play around with their squads, keeping the World Cups in mind.
It is worth noting that under Gambhir, India might have won the Champions Trophy, but the side has lost nine of its previous nine ODIs. However, Manjrekar reckons that even the Champions Trophy doesn’t matter as it is all truly about the World Cups and who eventually wins the big event.
“India losing to New Zealand in the ODI series recently, no big deal. Honestly, in 50-over cricket today, what really matters is the World Cup, not even the Champions Trophy, because if you try and remember the last three Champions Trophy winners, you’ll struggle to remember those. But World Cup, you’ll remember each winner from the time the tournament started,” Manjrekar said in a video shared on his Instagram handle.
“So yes, if you want to have your setbacks and your poor performances, get it out of the system now in time for the next World Cup. You’ve qualified for the World Cup. So these bilateral series are scheduled, but they’re mostly, I would say, warm-up games, and one shouldn’t read too much into it,” he added.
‘Bilaterals don’t matter’
With the growing impact of T20 leagues worldwide, the existence of bilateral ODIs has been questioned. Even former India spinner Ravichandran Ashwin had said that ODIS would have to fight for relevance, especially after the retirements of Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma.
Manjrekar echoed the same sentiment, saying no fan truly remembers the result of a bilateral series after a few days; hence, losses or wins should be taken with a pinch of salt.
“In fact, the importance of these bilateral ODI series has become such that two weeks later, no cricket fan also remembers the result of what happened in that bilateral one-day series. It’s all about the World Cup, and form coming into the World Cup, really. When you look at it, it’s not a big indicator of who’s going to win the World Cup. It’s all about playing well during the World Cup,” said Manjrekar.
“Have fun, play these bilateral series, and get some idea as to what your squad is going to be like. But let’s not read too much into these performances. It’s all about the World Cup. And come the World Cup, India should be up and running. So 50 years cricket for me now is only the World Cup and as an Indian, former India player and Indian cricket supporter, even in the World Cup, it’s not about that long sort of qualification phase, the league stage, it’s about the semis and finals. In a nutshell, that’s 50-over cricket for me, marked up until the next World Cup. Let’s not make a big deal about this loss, shall we?” he concluded.