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Virat Kohli Confirms Hardik Pandya’s No.4 Position, Twitterati Slams Kohli For Dhoni’s 7th Position

Australia broke India’s appreciative 9-match winning streak during the fourth ODI at Bengaluru’s Chinnaswamy stadium. Though Indian squad did well throughout the innings, it was Australia’s tough bowling that blocked India’s score from breaching the massive 334.

With the unassumed way Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli becoming prey to the Aussies, the strike rate declined further leaving India in the turmoil, though the middle-order batsmen Kedhar Jadhav and Hardik Pandya trimmed the target by adding another more than 100 runs, the dismissal of Pandya left an unhealing wound to the Team India.

Just after the match, skipper Virat Kohli has confirmed the position of Hardik Pandya for the following ODI series, he said that the impeccable form of Pandya in both bowling and batting is an added advantage to the Indian squad. He isn’t a simple slogger, rather can be fine batsmen if his position is promoted.

“For now, the plan to promote Hardik was to go after the spinner. (The idea was to) probably push the spinner out of the attack and get the quicks to come earlier into the game. He did that in the last game and he did it this time too and batted nicely. Hardik has got a solid defense and he has got the technique. He is not just a slogger. If he gains more confidence and if he can understand how to take the game till the end, he might be a regular at that spot. We are not predictable and are willing to do different things to put the opposition out,” said Kohli, in the post-match conference.

He showered praises on Kedhar and Pandya for the much-needed contribution, said, “When we had all gotten out and Hardik and Kedar were playing, this was the ideal situation for them to understand how the game can be taken until the end. They did a really good job with the partnership.”

Kohli concluded, “You have to try the guys out at some stage. You have to try out the bench strength. You need to give those guys some game time. Umesh and Shami bowled well. Umesh picked up four wickets. The runs might have been a bit more than what he would have expected but we only lost by 20-odd runs. We did not bat that badly. The wicket was good. The bowlers bowled well and credit goes to them. In hindsight, if you lose, I am not that kind who thinks that I should not have done this. If it does not work, you make another plan and go for it and try to execute it well. We have no doubts about why we rested both of them.”

The Indian skipper even congratulated David Warner for the amusing century.

While everything is going fine, it is Dhoni’s position that bothered the cricket buzz, people were surprised seeing Dhoni coming to strike when there are merely 26 balls. Dhoni donned a six before signing off the match, but placing him at such a position is not acceptable to many, netizens went berserk over slamming Kohli for the same.

Check out the Twitter reactions here:

And the expert says,

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