"We don't need to imitate England in everything"- Former India selector on brand of white-ball cricket

Former India selector Saba Karim feels the Men in Blue need to reassess their brand of white-ball cricket and change their approach. However, he also doesn't want them to do exactly what defending ODI and T20I champions England do with their team.

England are known to have quite a deep batting line-up and many feel that Team India should follow the same ideology. However, Karim feels that each team has its own set of strengths and weaknesses and it is up to the team management to decide how they want to bring about a change.

Replying to a Sportskeeda query during a media interaction arranged by Sony Sports Network, here's what Saba Karim had to say:

"We don't need to imitate England in everything. We need to have our own way of playing white-ball cricket. It is easy to say that play like England, but it is important to see whether we have those kinds of players and if we don't then how to unearth them. If we have them in domestic cricket then can we give them those opportunities? That is something India have to decide."

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Saba Karim on India's pace combination

It might be tempting for the Indian team to play both Deepak Chahar and Shardul Thakur as they can also bat and provide that much-needed balance in the absence of Hardik Pandya.

However, on being asked about this through a Sportskeeda query, Saba Karim spoke about the importance of picking bowlers who can strike in the middle overs as well. He stated:

"Initially, I think only one of them (Chahar and Thakur) will play. Because you also need to have three attacking bowlers who help you pick wickets not only with the new ball but also in the middle overs. We didn't pick up enough wickets in the middle overs against New Zealand so that's crucial along with having 6-7 bowling options if possible."

Squad for Bangladesh ODIs: Rohit Sharma (C), KL Rahul (VC), Shikhar Dhawan, Virat Kohli, Rajat Patidar, Shreyas Iyer, Rahul Tripathi, Rishabh Pant (WK), Ishan Kishan (WK), Shahbaz Ahmed, Axar Patel, Washington Sundar, Shardul Thakur, Mohd. Shami, Mohd. Siraj, Deepak Chahar, Kuldeep Sen.