Still areas of concern in white-ball cricket for India, need to identify wicket-taking spinner, asserts VVS Laxman

However, he continued with his poor form. In the third ODI, the team management decided against fielding any specialist spinner which shows their dwindling trust over the wrist-spin duo. VVS Laxman pointed out that both Chahal and Kuldeep haven't been at their best and the team needs to find out wicket-taking spinners with many ICC megaevents lined up.  

"More alarming is the steady decline in the quality of spin bowling in the 50-over format, specifically lack of skillsets will be exposed more damningly in this variant. Yuzvendra Chahal seems to have lost the confidence of the team management and Kuldeep Yadav has been out of sorts for a while. With the 50-over World Cup more than two years away, it is imperative that the net is cast far and wide and personnel capable of taking wickets in the middle overs identified and persisted with so that they grow into their roles by the time of the mega event," Laxman wrote in his column for TOI. 

"There still are a couple of areas of concern, though, pertaining to limited-overs cricket. With three World Cups lined up over the next two and a half years, there is a pressing need to ensure the presence of a sixth bowling option at all times."

"The undisputed star of the show, across formats, has to be Rishabh Pant. His growing maturity and situational awareness manifested itself each time he batted. Equally significantly, I am amazed at the grand strides he has made as a wicketkeeper, especially on difficult pitches at home against England during the Tests when he was scarcely troubled by appreciable turn and unpredictable bounce," Laxman opined.