Wasim Jaffer criticizes India’s bowling performance against Oman in Asia Cup

Former Indian Test opener Wasim Jaffer was not impressed with India’s bowling show after Suryakumar Yadav’s team registered a 21-run win against Oman at the Sheikh Zayed Stadium, Abu Dhabi on Friday. India posted a decent score of 188-8 in their 20 overs after SKY decided to bat first.

However, Indian bowlers conceded 167-4 against a beleaguered Oman side. Suryakumar Yadav gave bowling chances to every bowler, but they could not hit the right areas. Arshdeep Singh, Harshit Rana, Kuldeep Yadav, Shivam Dube, and Abhishek Sharma were all expensive and conceded their runs at an economy rate of more than 7.70.

Wasim Jaffer said on ESPN Cricinfo, “(Bowling performance) I thought it was an ordinary effort without a doubt. Even though the main bowlers didn’t bowl the full quota of overs, Kuldeep didn’t finish his overs. And I think obviously Varun wasn’t playing. They tried Tilak, they tried Abhishek. You know, Shivam generally doesn’t bowl three overs. Axar only bowled one over. So, you could understand that they were trying a few things… Saying that, still I feel it was a below-par performance.”

Jaffer reckons India took their foot off the pedal against Oman and he didn’t like the complacency.

“That generally happens (take foot off the pedal). I believe that when you play associate teams, you are already in the Super 4. You could understand with the kind of batting order that the Indians sent out. So, intensity is always gonna drop down. So, I won’t read too much into it, but that’s what happens. I mean, come Sunday, the Indian team will be at their best, I am sure,” he added.

On the other hand, Jaffer showered praise on the batting unit and on the team’s management for sticking to the right-left batting combination.

“On Left-hand, right-hand combination) I mean, India has got that flexibility, to be honest, because India has got so many left-handers also. So, there will be times when Abhishek Sharma is probably batting for a longer period, and Shubman has got out or Surya has got out, and Tilak, you know, you don’t want to send Tilak there. So, there is a chance that you might send Sanju Samson, or vice versa.”

“I mean, two left-handers, so you might send somebody else. Two right-handers are there, India has got plenty of left-handers like we said, there’s Axar, Dube, Tilak. So, I mean, to slot somebody at a fixed place is not going to be easy in T20 cricket. You need to be very flexible, you know, barring certain players -1,2,3. But after that, I mean, it depends on the situation and the batters need to be fluent to go at any time and get the job done,” he added.

India will take on arch-rivals Pakistan at the Dubai International Cricket Stadium, Dubai on Sunday.