IND vs WI: Ian Bishop lauds Rohit Sharma's aggressive field setup in 2nd ODI

India’s new limited-overs skipper Rohit Sharma found himself a fan in Former West Indian cricketer, Ian Bishop. Bishop, who was noted fast-bowler during his playing days for the West Indies, praised Sharma’s mentality to persist with aggressive fields in a low-scoring thriller against the West Indies on Wednesday.

India defeated West Indies in the second One Day International to take an unassailable lead of 2-0 on February 9th. The second ODI was also not a high-scoring affair. India, who chased a paltry total of 177 to bag victory in the first fixture, was asked to bat first. Except for Suryakumar Yadav and KL Rahul, no one really stepped up to anchor the Indian innings.

Yadav top-scored with 64 while Rahul scored a fluent 49 before being unfortunately run-out. Deepak Hooda played a cameo and made a useful 29 as India made a below-par total of 237-9. India’s experiment with Rishabh Pant opening the batting did not go according to the plan as he was cheaply dismissed for 18.

Former West Indian cricketer, Ian Bishop was impressed with Sharma’s insistence on setting an aggressive field till the final delivery. With only 237 runs to defend, Rohit marshaled his troops in the most intelligent and effective manner. Sharma ensured that the West Indian batters were kept under pressure and never let off the hook.

Rohit Sharma’s attacking field setting was very good to see: Ian Bishop

To ensure this Sharma kept rotating bowlers and set aggressive fields. His tactics yesterday suggested that instead of waiting for the batters to commit a mistake, they chose to apply pressure to induce false strokes from the batters and it worked. When asked to rate Rohit Sharma’s captaincy in this, Bishop said on Star Sports:

“There are a couple of key things as a captain – when you make a bowling change, your bowlers have to respond to it and make you look good. You can make these changes and you can bowl rubbish,”

“The other thing to add to Rohit Sharma is the attacking fielders that he kept in place from the start until the back-end of the innings was very good to see,” he added.

India won the second ODI by 77 runs, with young pacer Prasidh Krishna tearing apart the West Indian batting line-up with his spell of 9 overs-12 runs-3 maidens-4 wickets.