‘It makes no sense to me’ – Gautam Gambhir unhappy with Hardik Pandya’s decision during second T20I against New Zealand

The second India vs New Zealand T20I turned out to be a low-scoring thriller as both teams failed to counter with extreme spinning conditions of the Lucknow pitch. New Zealand could only manage to score 99/8 in 20 overs. In reply, India struggled to chase down the target and managed to win on the penultimate ball of the match.

Spinners had a field day during the game as out of the total 12 wickets which fell during the match, six were taken by them. Yuzvendra Chahal picked up the first wicket for India cleaning up the dangerous Fin Allen who was trying to attempt a reverse sweep against him. He further bowled another over and only gave away four runs in his first two. However, he was not brought back into the attack again as captain Hardik Pandya and part-timer Deepak Hooda bowled their full quota of four overs. Former Indian cricketer Gautam Gambhir was not too happy with the move.

“Massive surprise. I can’t answer this question, that too on a wicket like this. Chahal is your number-one spinner the T20 format. Just asking him to bowl two overs and in that he got the important wicket of Finn Allen and then not using his full quota of overs makes no sense to me,” said Gambhir on Star Sports after the match.

Apart from Chahal, Washington Sundar was the other spinner who didn’t complete his full quota of overs. While Pandya was the only seamer to bowl until the last two overs, the all-rounder tossed the ball to Arshdeep Singh for two overs towards the end and asked Shivam Mavi to bowl the last over.

You could have bowled Chahal in the last over: Gautam Gambhir

Gambhir felt that India could have bundled out New Zealand for 80-85 runs had Chahal been given one more over to bowl at the death.

“Yes, you want to give young guys another opportunity like Arshdeep Singh or Shivam Mavi. But then you could have bowled Chahal in the last over as well, or earlier. So I feel he missed a trick. He could have got New Zealand bowled for maybe 80 or 85 and on this kind of pitch, you don’t want to let the opposition off the hook. Massive surprise, asking Hooda to bowl four overs but not Chahal,” added Gambhir.

With the series tied 1-1, the two teams will play the third and final T20I on Wednesday at Narendra Modi Stadium, Ahmedabad.