Tarouba: Star India all-rounder Ravindra Jadeja responded to former captain Kapil Dev’s dig on the team becoming ‘arrogant’, saying “people make such comments when India lose matches”.
Recently, Kapil said that arrogance has crept in the current Indian team and the players feel they know everything.
Talking to reporters on the eve of the series-deciding third ODI against the West Indies here, Jadeja said the players were only focussed on winning for India and have no personal agenda.
“Everyone has their own opinion. Ex-players have full right to share their opinion, but I don’t think there is any arrogance in this team,” Jadeja said.
“Everyone is enjoying their cricket and everyone is hardworking. No one has taken anything for granted. They are giving their 100 per cent. Such comments generally come when Indian team loses a match.
“This is a good bunch of boys, this is a good group. We are representing India and that is our main aim, there is no personal agenda,” he added.
‘Playing XI for Asia Cup already decided’
Jadeja said the playing XI for the Asia Cup beginning on August 30 has already been decided despite the experimentations in the ODI series against the West Indies.
India rested regular skipper Rohit Sharma and star batter Virat Kohli in the second ODI of the three-match series, which the visitors lost by six wickets. India had won the first match by five wickets.
“This is the series before the Asia Cup and World Cup, where we can experiment, we can try out new combinations. It will give us an idea about the team’s balance, strengths and weaknesses,” Jadeja told reporters on eve of the series decider.
India’s 50-over assignments after the the tour of the Caribbeans include the Asia Cup which starts later this month followed by a three-match series against Australia and the all important ODI World Cup in October.
“Captain and team management know what combination they are going to play. There is no confusion at all. We have already decided what is going to be the combination in the Asia Cup, they have already decided that before. But it’s more about trying out a particular player or batter at a batting position.”
India are expected to continue giving valuable game time to youngsters in the series-deciding third match on Tuesday.
Talking about the loss in the second ODI, Jadeja said, “We were not disappointed with the loss. We didn’t lose the match because of experiments, sometimes conditions also matter.
“We are trying different combinations. We can try different batters at different position. This is the series where we can afford to chop and change. Young players also need that international experience, they also need a game time,” he said.
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