India vs New Zealand: Gautam Gambhir was left surprised after Deepak Hooda bowled four overs instead of Yuzvendra Chahal in the second T20I in Lucknow.
New Delhi,UPDATED: Jan 29, 2023 23:36 IST
Made no sense: Gambhir surprised after Chahal didn’t complete quota in 2nd T20I. Courtesy: AP
By India Today Web Desk: Former batter Gautam Gambhir found it tough to make sense of Yuzvendra Chahal not completing his quota of four overs in the second T20I between India and New Zealand on Sunday, January 29 at the Bharat Ratna Shri Atal Bihari Vajpayee Ekana Cricket Stadium in Lucknow.
Chahal bowled only two overs, one of which was a maiden, and finished with impressive figures of 2-1-4-1. It was Chahal who gave India their first breakthrough by getting the wicket of Finn Allen, who hit two fours and scored 11 off 10 balls.
“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,” Gambhir was quoted as saying to Star Sports.
Gambhir was also surprised after Deepak Hooda got an opportunity to complete his quota of four overs instead of Chahal. Hooda got the important wicket of Glenn Phillips and had 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,” he added.
After being asked to chase down 100, India huffed and puffed quite a bit before winning the match with one ball to spare. Suryakumar Yadav became the Player of the Match for his unbeaten 26-run knock under pressure. Earlier, the Kiwis scored only 99 for the loss of eight wickets in 20 overs.
