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Xtra Time Web Desk: Team India Head Coach Rahul Dravid has defended his decision to rest both Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli for the second ODI despite loss against West Indies at Kensington Oval on Saturday. The visitors were outplayed by Shai Hope and his team by 6 wickets. It also marked West Indies’ first ODI win against India since December 2019.

India's batting performance being disappointing and getting all out for 181 runs might have been a major contributing factor to their loss. Ishan Kishan's efforts with 55 runs from 55 balls were commendable, but it seems like other batsmen might not have been able to support him adequately, resulting in a subpar total.

India will need to regroup, identify their weaknesses, and work on rectifying them to bounce back strongly in the series and future matches. Despite the loss, Dravid defended the decision to make so many changes to the line-up as he wanted players to have game time behind them.

"We have to try out other people and we have to give other people some chances so that we, you know, in the worst-case scenario, at least they have game time behind them. It gives us an opportunity to make some decisions on players. You know, we just felt that honestly, in a series like this, with only two-three matches to go before the Asia Cup, you know, playing and honestly would not have given us, you know, too many answers. But, you know, with the injuries that we have in the NCA and some sort of uncertainty around them, we wanted to give some of the other boys a chance so that if required, then you know they can play," said Dravid.

Dravid also gave his honest verdict on the Suryakumar's continued slump in One Day cricket in recent times.

According to Dravid, "Look, Surya is a really good player, there's no doubt about it," Dravid said. "His performances have shown that, especially in T20 cricket, even in domestic white-ball cricket. He has some very good performances. Unfortunately, he'd be the first one to admit his ODI numbers aren't up to his high standards he's set in T20s. But he's also learning about one-day cricket.

He added, "Surya’s played a lot of competitive T20 cricket through the IPL before he made his India debut, but in terms of one-day cricket he hasn't played that much, there's no IPL in one-day cricket. So I think he's also learning, trying to figure out how to bat in those middle overs. He's a talent, he's a really good player, we want to give him as many opportunities as we can. Upto him now to take those opportunities and use them. But yeah, in the kind of set-up we are, we like to give people as many chances we possibly can."