Former Indian batter Mohammad Kaif has advised Indian captain Shreyas Iyer to reserve the last two overs of an innings for Jasprit Bumrah and Arshdeep Singh. While Iyer backed Shivam Dube in the first match for the final over, he gave the last over of the innings to Nitish Kumar Reddy in the second T20I at Delhi on Tuesday.
Dube was taken for 21 runs by Azmatullah Omarzai and Mujeeb ur Rahman. Reddy, on the other hand, conceded 11 runs in the final over of the innings.
Meanwhile, Jasprit Bumrah returned with impressive figures of 1-25 in his quota of four overs, whereas Arshdeep Singh bagged 2-35 in his four overs.
Kaif said Iyer should not experiment at the fag end of an innings as it could prove costly.
“Nitish Kumar Reddy bowled by reading the pitch and by adapting. He gave only 12 runs off his first 2 overs, last match he had conceded 30 runs in 2 overs. He had to bowl the last over today, which is not his role, his role is to bowl in the middle overs. Shreyas Iyer needs to learn that in the future. No one other than Arshdeep Singh and Jasprit Bumrah should bowl the 19th and 20th overs. They should never deviate from that. He should never give those overs to anyone else,” Mohammad Kaif said on Cricbuzz.
The former UP batter said Nitish Kumar Reddy should have completed his quota of four overs as he was bowling well.
“Nitish Kumar Reddy was bowling so well, he had to complete his four-over spell. He bowled the first 2 overs so well, why didn’t you make him complete his spell? I don’t think we needed six bowlers,” he added.
On the other hand, former Indian fast bowler Mohit Sharma said Iyer wanted to see if he could trust anyone else.
“The phase that is going on right now is an experimental phase, as far as I can understand. If there is a big match, you will 100 percent see Arshdeep Singh and Jasprit Bumrah bowling the death overs. But now, without Hardik Pandya, they want to see if they can trust anyone else,” Mohit Sharma said.
The third and final T20I between Afghanistan and India will be played at Delhi on Thursday.
