IND vs ZIM 2022: "You should have taken some more challenge on" - Maninder Singh little disappointed with India's approach in the series

Former Indian cricketer Maninder Singh is slightly disappointed with Team India's conservative approach in the ODI series against Zimbabwe.

The Men in Blue won the final ODI of the three-match series at the Harare Sports Club in Harare on Monday, August 22, by a narrow margin of 13 runs. The win helped the visitors complete a 3-0 sweep, having registered comfortable wins while chasing in the first two games.

During a discussion on Sony Sports, Maninder was asked whether KL Rahul and co. should have batted first in the first two games as well rather than only in the final ODI. The veteran spinner replied:

"That should have been the idea of this series basically. You won the first two tosses as well, as you won today and you batted first. You should have taken some more challenge on because everybody knew this Zimbabwe side is not very strong."

Maninder pointed out that the visitors would have been tested in both the batting and bowling departments if they had opted to set a target in the first two games as well. He explained:

"If they had batted first, probably they would have had more to gain, which was a little disappointing. Sometimes the Indians do that and I feel why. This was an opportunity to test your opening batters in difficult conditions and then test your bowlers when the conditions become good for batting, which happened today."

The visitors registered an emphatic 10-wicket win in the series opener on August 18. They followed that up with a slightly more challenging five-wicket win in the second ODI two days later before completing a whitewash on Monday.

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"This was a good testing for the Indians" - Maninder Singh on the visitors defending a target in the final ODI

Sikandar Raza's knock helped Zimbabwe mount a fighting challenge in the final ODI [P/C: Twitter]

The former slow left-arm bowler pointed out that the Indian bowlers would have gained immensely from the final ODI. He reasoned:

"This was a good testing for the Indians. They came out winning this game and I am sure that should have given some confidence to them because the bowlers who got hit and brought Zimbabwe back into the game, they brought Indians back into the game."

Maninder concluded by expressing his disappointment with the Men in Blue's approach in the series, saying:

"So these kinds of things don't give you confidence. I was a little disappointed with the way they went about this series."

Sikandar Raza smashed 115 runs off just 95 balls and strung together a 104-run partnership for the eighth wicket with Brad Evans to take Zimbabwe close to a win in the final ODI. However, Avesh Khan and Shardul Thakur dismissed Evans and Raza, respectively, in quick succession to deny the hosts an upset win.