Winning an ODI series is a cause for celebration. However, when India clinched a 2-1 victory over the West Indies in October 2026, not everyone was jubilant.
While they took the first two matches comfortably, India lost the third match at the PCA International Cricket Stadium on Saturday, October 3, after posting a handy 351-7. The visitors were handed a five-wicket victory to avoid humiliation as a series whitewash and reveal India's bowling issues.
Thanks to an unbeaten 129 by KL Rahul and a brisk 92 by Rohit Sharma, West Indies chased it down with ease in 48.2 overs, helped by an incredible 162 not out by Shai Hope. Conceding over 1,000 runs in a three-match series on a flat pitch has frightened the cricketing fraternity.
Here is the reaction of five former India stars to the wake-up call in New Chandigarh
Kris Srikkanth: “No Chance of Winning the World Cup”
The former opener was not hesitant in expressing his disapproval of India's bowling strategies and execution through a rant on his YouTube channel. Srikkanth was in particular critical of captaincy decisions that left Mohammed Siraj with room for error.
“Mohammed Siraj had two overs to bowl, and even if he had bowled the 50th over, he would have bowled only nine. I didn't understand that logic.. The Indian bowling overall is so pedestrian. There is no chance of winning the World Cup with this bowling. India are just trying to develop random guys like Gurnoor Brar and Anshul Kamboj,” the YouTube personality said.
Kamboj had a nightmare ODI debut in New Chandigarh, leaking 82 runs in his nine wicketless overs.
2. Hanuma Vihari: A “Wake-up call”
Failing to defend a massive total such as 350 is not merely a minor blunder for the discarded Test batter.
“We could not defend 350. Is this not a wake-up call? I think the team is going backwards. This is a big blow. This has happened on very rare occasions when the Indian team fails to defend 350. This bowling attack certainly has to be investigated. They conceded 405 also in the previous match,” Vihari said.
This is far from the first time that India's attack has been helped by batters' exploits. The likes of Shubman Gill (double-ton) and Rohit (century) have bailed out India during the very same campaigns in Guwahati.
3. Ajinkya Rahane: Jasprit Bumrah's Dependence Conundrum
Addressing the glaring inexperience within the squad (due in part to Jasprit Bumrah resting while leading the T20I side at the Asian Games in Japan), former vice-captain Ajinkya Rahane warned that India cannot place all their eggs in one basket.
During a conversation on Cricbuzz, Rahane noted the possible psychological toll that such a series could have on fringe players.
“This is an inexperienced bowling attack; we all know that. But the Indian team will be a little concerned, for sure. We saw what happened without Bumrah. We wish that Bumrah is fit and fine till the World Cup… but in cricket anything can happen. What are our options after him?”
4. Sadagopan Ramesh: Counter-Productive Pitches
Shifting the blame from the players to the curators, former opener Sadagopan Ramesh felt that the flat tracks for the series did more harm than good. With the World Cup (ODI) set to be in South Africa in 2027, Ramesh's comments on an Instagram video were made with an eye on future fixtures.
“The World Cup will be played in South Africa, where the bowlers will definitely make an impact. By playing on such wickets in this series, the bowlers' confidence would have come down, while it would make the batters overconfident. This series hasn't helped India's World Cup preparation,” Ramesh stated.
With Gill (334), Shai Hope (278) and Amir Jangoo (239), the batters across camps were largely toothless.
Also read: Hardik Pandya, Harshit Rana suffer fresh injury setbacks ahead of India's New Zealand tour: Report
5. Dinesh Karthik: More questions
Summing up the sentiment, former wicketkeeper-batter Dinesh Karthik noted that the 2-1 scoreline hides vulnerabilities.
Karthik highlighted that while Kuldeep Yadav was the pick of the bowlers with 7 scalps, his economy rate of 5.57 was mediocre. His teammates' performances were even worse with Prasidh Krishna (economy of 7), Gurnoor Brar (7.54) and Nitish Kumar Reddy (8.03) putting in poor figures.
“I don't think bowling was really up to the mark. Obviously, to give more than 1000 runs in a three-match series basically means that your bowlers have not been as good as they should be… There are more questions than answers with the bowling unit,” Karthik said.
Looking Ahead
Ultimately, India managed to lift the trophy. However, the post-mortem for the West Indies series shows that the team management needs to find reliable wicket-taking options to balance Jasprit Bumrah, in addition to working out how to defend totals when the pitches offer no help. This will be key as both Rahul Dravid (think-tank) and the entire board prepare for the global tournaments.