The Indian cricket team got off to a bad start on their tour of Bangladesh, losing the first one-day international match by a single wicket. Despite posting a below-par total of 186 runs, India appeared to be on course for victory until wicket-keeper KL Rahul dropped the crucial catch of Mehidy Hasan Miraz before Washington Sundar appeared to refuse to even approach a catching opportunity. Dinesh Karthik, India’s veteran wicket-keeper batter, was perplexed by the duo’s fielding errors.
Karthik admitted as a pundit on Cricbuzz that he couldn’t understand why Sundar didn’t come in and try to catch the ball.
“Obviously KL Rahul’s drop towards the end and Sundar not coming, don’t know why he didn’t come in. I don’t know if it was because of the lights, which I wouldn’t know, but if he had seen the ball, he should have gone for it. That’s only a question he can answer. Overall fielding effort was 50-50. Not the best day, but not the worst day either. I guess in the end, with the pressure, we left some boundaries as well,” Karthik stated.
The incident enraged India captain Rohit Sharma, who lost his cool on the field after seeing Miraz’s catch go begging not once, but twice in the final few overs.
In the post-match press conference, KL Rahul admitted that India had lost two catching opportunities at the end.
“That’s cricket right. You have to expect the unexpected. As long as cricket has been played, these kinds of things keep happening. They fought very well till the end and the couple of dropped catches and that innings from Mehidy,” He stated.
The Indian team will look to put things right when they face Bangladesh in the second ODI on Wednesday.