Former Indian opener Virender Sehwag questioned Shreyas Iyer’s captaincy after Punjab Kings suffered a four-wicket loss against Gujarat Titans at the Narendra Modi Stadium, Ahmedabad on Sunday. Iyer decided to back all-rounder Marcus Stoinis in the final over when GT needed 11 runs.
However, the Australian could not defend the score as Washington Sundar and Arshad Khan delivered for GT. Stoinis bowled a wide on the first delivery and then Khan smashed a boundary to release all the pressure.
Sehwag said Iyer, who is known for his astute captaincy, was not able to get his calculations right. Surprisingly, Yuzvendra Chahal bowled a solitary over, in which he conceded 13 runs.
“I think Shreyas Iyer’s calculations were a bit wrong, because he had to give the last over to Stoinis. If that last over was bowled by Arshdeep Singh, Xavier Bartlett, or Marco Jansen, then maybe PBKS could have won this match, because there were 11 runs to defend,” Sehwag said on Cricbuzz.
“It was Shreyas Iyer’s decision to not bowl Chahal, and use his main bowlers till the 19th over, and hope that they take wickets. Even Iyer must have felt that this match might not go till the end like this. Where Chahal should have bowled in the middle overs, he was not used. I think that if he was brought earlier into the attack, then that might have been good. He could have bowled against Buttler,” he added.
On the other hand, former Indian batter Manoj Tiwary said it was difficult to understand why Iyer didn’t bring back Yuzvendra Chahal into the attack.
“There has been a mistake. According to me, it is not entirely right to blame Shreyas Iyer for that because when Chahal was brought on, he gave away 13 runs. But, he had the call to make to bring him on against two left-handers, because he could have conceded more runs or even not, he had to make that call. But I feel that you should always go with your experienced bowlers. If he gets hit in the first over, then there is no guarantee that he will go for runs again. He could have even bowled a good ball and brought them back into the game,” the former KKR player said on Cricbuzz.
The former Bengal cricketer highlighted that captains have not backed their premier bowlers because of match-ups and believes Chahal should have been backed by Iyer.
“The thought that has gone into captains’ mind that if there are left-handed batters then they should not bowl wrist spinners or left-arm spin, that is quite difficult to understand. If you see the wicket-taking stats of Chahal, he is at the top of the list. So, that mistake, where Chahal was not bowled, did not leave Iyer options for the final over, where they could have defended,” he continued.
Punjab Kings will next take on Sunrisers Hyderabad at Hyderabad on Wednesday.
