Thaindian News

Kingston (Jamaica), June 17 (IANS) India cricket coach Duncan Fletcher wants to give youngsters more opportunities to blossom since five games are not enough to judge the ability of a player.

While middle-order batsmen Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli made most of the opportunities that came their way in the 3-2 ODI series-win over the West Indies, wicketkeeper-batsman Parthiv Patel, all-rounder Yusuf Pathan, middle-order batsmen Shikhar Dhawan and Subramaniam Badrinath, and even captain Suresh Raina failed to impress the selectors.

“Five games are not enough of a chance to judge a player and his ability. Playing for India is a huge pressure and with so many talents around, you are given very few chances They then put a lot of pressure on themselves with the technique changes that affect performance,” said Fletcher, after India suffered a loss in the fifth and final ODI here Thursday.

“You need a long run to learn ODI cricket. Great batsmen say that it takes 50 ODIs to learn the game. Most of these guys have played just three-four games,” Fletcher said.

“So what they learn from this experience is going to be key for their development.”

Fletcher had words of praise for Raina, who became the youngest Indian captain to win an ODI serie.

“It’s not easy when you are trying to develop your game, establish yourself, and you also have to think about 10-14 other young players. It’s difficult to move away. Captaincy at any level is a difficult job, your mind can wander from your game to the game of your team.

“You need to be a little bit careful. Sometimes you have a bad patch and on other occasions you put your shots together and play a match-winning innings.”

Raina had a poor run scoring 82 runs from five matches at an average of 20.50, but Fletcher backed the left-handed batsman to come good.

“At 24, captaining India, I don’t think there is any pressure on an individual (cricketer) bigger than that. He (Raina) is still developing but I like that he got along with other individuals on and off the field.

“He put his head on the block (with the decisions), took criticism yet held his head high. He didn’t let it drop. His body language was positive,” he said. “He could be developing into a very good captain in the future.”

Fletcher also praised Kohli, who scored 94 in the fifth ODI.

“He is a very good player, he is the future of Indian cricket. He went through a period when he was hard on himself and didn’t get runs. Today he showed that under pressure he could apply his mind to the job and his innings was outstanding.”

Fletcher said India lost the last two ODIs due to loss of concentration.

“I would like to think it as a 4-2 result in our favour, including the Twenty20 game. Sometimes when you win the series, it becomes very difficult to concentrate,” he explained.