Former Indian opener Gautam Gambhir was surprised after Yuzvendra Chahal didn’t complete his quota of overs in the second T20I against New Zealand at Lucknow on Sunday. Chahal was introduced in the fourth over by Hardik Pandya and the first ball he bowled to Finn Allen was a ripper.
Chahal accounted for Allen in the very first over and bowled a maiden to push the opposition on the back foot. The leg-spinner conceded four runs in the second over he bowled but surprisingly he wasn’t given the ball by Hardik Pandya after that. Furthermore, Washington Sundar bowled three overs and he also didn’t complete his quota of overs.
India was able to restrict New Zealand to 99-8 after Mitchell Santner won the toss and decided to bowl first. The pitch was assisting the spinners and it was difficult to bat for both sides.
“Chahal is your No.1 spinner in the T20 format. Asking him to bowl only two overs where he got the wicket of Finn Allen and not using his quota of four overs makes no sense to me. Yes, you want to give chances to young guys line Arshdeep Singh and Shivam Mavi. But then you could have bowled Chahal in the last or second-last over,” Gambhir was quoted as saying to Star Sports.
The Indian spinners bowled a total of 13 overs in which they conceded 53 runs and scalped four wickets. In fact, part-time spinner Deepak Hooda completed his quota of four overs and gave away 17 runs.
“For me, Hardik missed a trick as Chahal could have helped India bowl New Zealand for around 80-85. On this kind of wicket, you don’t want to let the opposition off the hook. But then again, I was surprised after Deepak Hooda was asked to bowl four overs and not Chahal,” he added.
Meanwhile, India was able to get over the line after Suryakumar Yadav scored 26 runs off 31 balls. Hardik Pandya also contributed with an unbeaten 15 runs in the end.
India was able to level the series 1-1 as they went on to win by six wickets. The third and final T20I will be played at Ahmedabad on Wednesday.
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