India must bring back Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli to win the series, reckons Aakash Chopra

Former India player Aakash Chopra says India will have to bring back Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli in the final ODI against West Indies if they want to clinch the series.

India left out the experienced duo for the second match and paid an immediate price. The visitors were left bamboozled and suffered a crushing defeat against the West Indies, who recently failed to qualify for the ICC World Cup later this year.

And Aakash Chopra reckons both Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli must be integrated into the squad if Team India want to win the ODI series.

"If you were to look at the series for experiments, why stop? If you're going in with the philosophy that 'I am going to try a lot of cricketers, I'm going to give chances to the players who haven't gotten enough game time.' Why change? You've done it in the first game, you've done it in the second game. Just give more opportunities to the players who haven't gotten enough in the past."

Chopra then posed an opposing viewpoint, saying that if the team wants to maximize its chances of winning the third ODI and the series, they'll have to bring in veterans Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli into the line-up. That'll also mean the end of giving opportunities to someone like Sanju Samson or Suryakumar Yadav, one of the two will have to sit out. Axar Patel won't get another opportunity."

Chopra also says India can go with a lesser bowler for the final match. He believes the Indian team have many bowling options and should contain with playing a maximum of six of them.

"India has a lot of bowling options. With regards to fast bowlers, they have four. They played as many as three in the previous game. You don't need seven options to play in an ODI on a surface that's bowler-friendly," he concluded.