Harbhajan Singh and Sunil Gavaskar rubbished India’s bowling coach Bharat Arun’s claim that the toss was responsible for India’s early exit from the T20 World Cup.
Veteran off-spinner Harbhajan Singh rubbished bowling coach Bharat Arun’s ‘toss excuse’ for India’s shocking exit from the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup, saying that the Virat Kohli-led side failed to progress to knockout stages due to a couple of bad performances and nothing else.
Harbhajan Singh Opens Up On Bharat Arun’s Toss Excuse
Notably, India was knocked out of the race to the semi-final of the ongoing ICC T20 World Cup in the UAE after New Zealand beat Afghanistan by eight wickets in Abu Dhabi to join Pakistan in the knockouts.
Harbhajan Singh pointed out IPL franchise Chennai Super Kings’ example, saying despite batting first, the team went on to beat Kolkata Knight Riders in the final of IPL 2021 not too long ago. Chennai Super Kings managed to score 192 for 3 due to Faf du Plessis 86 and beat Kolkata Knight Riders 165 for 9 by 27 runs despite Shubman Gill and Venkatesh Iyer’s fifties.
Bharat Arun, on the eve of India’s final match of the T20 World Cup, listed two reasons behind India’s indifferent performance at the ICC event, mentioning that toss and bio-bubble fatigue were the reasons behind India’s defeats in the first two matches against Pakistan and New Zealand.
“I am not trying to give any excuses but I think in this World Cup the trend has been the team that wins the toss has a big advantage especially when you are in playing in Dubai. The wicket kind of eases out when you come out to bowl the second time. These are no excuses. We should have done better, we should have batted better. In the first match, we had the chance to defend a good total, but we looked a little below par,” Bharat said while speaking in the pre-match press conference ahead of the India vs Namibia match.
“I heard Bharat Arun saying that had India won the toss, they could have done this and done that. All that is up for a later discussion. If you had thought that you wanted to bowl first or bat first, well didn’t Chennai Super Kings win the IPL after batting first? They did score 190, so you have to make runs. Let us accept the fact that we didn’t play well as we should have and we did not live up to expectations,” Harbhajan said on Sports Tak.
India’s bowling coach on Sunday blamed the toss for India’s early ouster from the ongoing T20 World Cup. Now, Harbhajan Singh and Sunil Gavaskar have rubbished Bharat Arun’s lame excuse. Both the players reckon toss was not the only reason for India’s exit from the marquee tournament. Harbhajan Singh cited the example of CSK, who won the final despite batting first in similar conditions.
Sunil Gavaskar: If Batting Flourished Like Afghanistan Where India Posted Above 200, TheIndian Bowlers Wouldh’ve Got A Cushion Of 30-40 Runs
Sunil Gavaskar felt India did not have enough runs on the board in the first place against Pakistan and the Kiwis.
“If our batting had flourished as it did against Afghanistan when they scored 200 then the dew factor wouldn’t have come into play at all because the bowlers have a cushion of 30-40 runs already. So even if they were taken for a few extra runs with the wet ball, those 40 extra runs would make the difference,” Gavaskar said.
With Afghanistan losing to New Zealand, India will now play a dead rubber against Namibia on Monday, capping off a disappointing end to Virat Kohli’s T20 captaincy career.