India vs Windies: Ian Bishop reckons Virat Kohli opted to bat first in 2nd ODI to test his team

The current Indian ODI side is known for engineering masterful chases, led by their captain Virat Kohli, who is almost capable of offering courses on how to chase a target. There have been few totals that India have failed to gun down, especially when their beefed up top order fire early on in the innings. India currently possess an almost invincible trio of Rohit Sharma, Shikhar Dhawan, and Virat Kohli – if one doesn’t come good, the others are sure to step up to the plate.

This makes it extremely difficult for teams batting first to calculate the sort of total that would give them the edge. Essentially, the more runs they score, the better. And rest assured, when Kohli wins the toss, he consistently opts to chase. However, this norm was broken in Vishakhapatnam on Wednesday when India took on the Windies in the 2nd of the 5-match ODI series.

An uncharacteristic decision by Virat Kohli

Having won the toss, the Indian skipper opted to bat first. India were able to put the runs on the board in the first innings, courtesy of an imperial century from the captain himself, who, en route his 37th ODI hundred, marched into the elite club of batsmen with more than 10,000 ODI runs.

But this was uncharacteristic of the skipper, and Ian Bishop believes Kohli deliberately took this decision to test his team. With just a handful of ODIs to go before the World Cup gets underway in England, the former Windies cricketer felt India wanted to test themselves to see how they’d fare batting first.

“I can’t really think of any other reason as to why Kohli despite knowing history would do what he did. So, I think he wanted to test his team somehow,” said Bishop, an expert on Star Sports.

India were forced to be content with a tie at Vizag after Shai Hope and Shimron Hetmyer came agonizingly close to providing the visitors with a win. The two teams are now scheduled to take each other on in the third ODI at the Maharashtra Cricket Association Stadium in Pune on Saturday.

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