‘Aur ye Asian games me captain hai’ – Fans react as Rututraj Gaikwad fails in 3rd ODI against West Indies, gets out after scoring just 8 runs

The 3rd and final match of the 3-match ODI series between India and West Indies was played at the Brian Lara Stadium in Trinidad on Tuesday, August 1. The Indian team management once again rested Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli for the decider and decided to go with the inexperienced side.

Meanwhile, the right-handed batter Ruturaj Gaikwad made his ODI comeback but couldn’t produce anything special for himself as he got out after scoring just 8 runs. He failed to make any impact in the match and it was the last ODI match before the Asia Cup 2023. After this knock, Gaikwad’s hopes to get a spot for the ODI World Cup and Asia Cup are probably ended.

Talking about India’s innings, asked to bat first, Indian openers Shubman Gill and Ishan Kishan displayed a brilliant batting performance and stitched a 143-run stand for the first wicket. Both the openers smashed their half-centuries, however, none of them was able to convert it into a big score. 

It feels really great to spend some time in the middle: Sanju Samson

Kishan played an outstanding knock of 77 runs off just 64 balls, which included 8 fours and 3 sixes. Gill also scored 85 runs which included 11 fours. The pitch looked great to bat but Gaikwad was unfortunate as he couldn’t get a big score. However, the upcoming batters made full use of the foundation set by the openers.

Samson looked great and smashed an amazing fifty, which included 2 fours and 4 sixes. Hardik Pandya, who was leading the side in Rohit’s absence, played an unbeaten knock of 70 runs, which came off just 52 balls and smashed 4 fours and 5 sixes. Suryakumar Yadav also contributed 35 runs, while smashing 2 fours and 2 sixes and helped the team to achieve a total of 351 runs after losing 5 wickets in 50 overs. Samson talked about his knock in the post-inning interview.

“It feels really great to spend some time in the middle, score some runs and contribute for your country. I had different plans for different players, I wanted to use my feet and dominate the lengths of the bowlers. Being an Indian cricketer is a challenging thing (speaking about adjusting to playing in different batting positions), I have played domestic cricket for the last 8-9 years and for India here and there, so it gives you a bit of understanding of playing in different positions,” he said.

Here’s how fans reacted:

https://twitter.com/24rocking/status/1686406034879893504?s=20

https://twitter.com/akarcb14/status/1686395828934742016?s=20