Former India batsman Gautam Gambhir has criticised captain Hardik Pandya for his decisions during the second T20I between India and New Zealand on Sunday (January 29).
The Men in Blue beat the Black Caps by 6 wickets in Lucknow to draw level in the three-match series. It was a low-scoring affair that saw neither India nor New Zealand managing to hit a single six during their respective innings.
Batting first, New Zealand could only manage to score 99 for 8 in their allotted 20 overs. Not a single player managed to touch the 20-run mark as Mitchell Santner’s unbeaten 19 was the highest score for New Zealand.
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India’s batsmen did not find the pitch easy to bat on either as they crossed the finishing line with just one ball remaining. Suryakumar Yadav top-scored for India, scoring an unbeaten 26 including the winning boundary to take the hosts over the finishing line.
Gautam Gambhir on Hardik Pandya’s captaincy:
While Hardik Pandya led India to victory, it did not stop Gautam Gambhir from criticising some of his decisions during the clash. The World Cup-winning former cricketer found it tough to make sense of Yuzvendra Chahal not completing his quota of four overs.
Chahal bowled just two overs and still managed to make a big impression. One of the two overs was a maiden over and he also gave India their first breakthrough by dismissing the dangerous Finn Allen as he finished the game with impressive figures of 2-1-4-1.
“Chahal is your No.1 spinner in the T20 format. Asking him to bowl only two overs where he got the wicket of Finn Allen and not using his quota of four overs makes no sense to me. Yes you want to give chances to young guys line Arshdeep Singh and Shivam Mavi. But then you could have bowled Chahal in the last or second-last over,” Gautam Gambhir was quoted as saying to Star Sports.
Speaking further, Gambhir expressed his surprise over part-time spinner Deepak Hooda getting to bowl his full quota of 4 overs. Hooda, however, performed well with the ball as he finished with the figures of 4-0-17-1.
“For me, Hardik missed a trick as Chahal could have helped India bowl New Zealand for around 80-85. On this kind of a wicket, you don’t want to let the opposition off the hook. But then again, I was surprised after Deepak Hooda was asked to bowl four overs and not Chahal,” said Gautam Gambhir.
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