India wicketkeeper batter Rishabh Pant said that the Indian spin duo of Ashwin and Chahal could have done better in the second ODI as South Africa chased down the target of 288 with a loss of only 3 wickets as the hosts took an unassailable lead of 2-0 in the 3-match series. However, Pant defended Bhuvneshwar Kumar who looked totally out of colour in the first two matches of the series.
Bhuvneshwar Kumar bowled 18 overs in two matches and conceded runs with an economy of 7.27 without taking a single wicket. In the last ODI series against Sri Lanka in July last year, he picked 3 wickets in 2 matches with an economy of 6.15. However, Pant doesn’t feel if there is anything wrong with Bhuvi’s form as he defended him by saying that India is playing ODI cricket after a long gap.
“I don’t think there’s too much concern about Bhuvi bhai”- Rishabh Pant
“As a team, we are always looking to improve but I don’t think there’s too much concern about Bhuvi bhai because obviously we are playing One-Days after a long time so we are just getting used to the momentum. Obviously, we are disappointed after losing the series but at the same time, we are looking to learn from our mistakes,” Pant spoke in the post-match press conference.
Pant who played a fabulous knock of 85 to give India impetus in the middle overs, said that the pitch was on the slower side but India had enough total on the board but he gave credit to South Africa batters who never let the required rate go up in the chase.
“I think the track was slightly on the slower side. But at the same time, I think we had enough runs on the board. In the last match, we chased and in this match, we batted first. [In the last match] the wicket was much better for batting first and in the second innings, it became slower and slower as the game progressed. And today it was the same but they batted well in the middle-overs and that’s why chased down the target,” he added.
However, Pant felt that India spin duo- Ashwin and Chahal could have done better in these two matches. The duo picked only two wickets in two matches as India picked just 7 wickets in two matches. Ashwin in his comeback series returned with figures of 1/53 and 0/68 while the story of Chahal is pretty much the same.
“It’s possible because I didn’t play that series and I don’t remember much about it. As a spinning unit, we could have done a bit better but we have to see we are playing a One-Day after a long time and that’s also a factor because we are just coming out of Test matches and there’s a difference in the tempo. Maybe we fell behind a bit in that,” Pant concluded.
The third and final match will be played on January 23 in Cape Town.
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