India vs South Africa: Gavaskar slams India, says team lacks ‘wicket takers’ bowlers
Rishabh Pant’s Team India suffered a second consecutive T20 defeat after losing to South Africa by four wickets in the second T20I in Cuttack on Sunday (June 12). After Sunday’s loss, India are now 2-0 down in the five-match series and need to win the next game on Tuesday (June 14) in Visakhapatnam to survive in the series.
Former India opener Sunil Gavaskar was scathingly criticized for his analysis on the Indian team, blaming its bowlers. In the first T20I in Delhi, the Indian bowlers failed to defend the target of 211 runs, while in Cuttack, Bhuvneshwar Kumar’s 4/13 went in vain as Heinrich Klaasen steered SA to victory.
“The big problem is that apart from Bhuvneshwar Kumar, they don’t have wicket-takers in this team. So, you take wickets and then you put the opposition under pressure. So did anyone other than Bhuvneshwar Kumar seem to get wickets in both the matches? He was moving the ball. That is the issue because of which the total of 211 was something they could not defend,” Gavaskar told host broadcaster Star Sports after the match on Sunday.
South Africa won the second T20I by 4 wickets and are now 2-0 up in the five-match series.
Scorecard – https://t.co/pkuUUB966c #INDvSA @Paytm pic.twitter.com/fwlCeXouOM
— BCCI (@BCCI) June 12, 2022
Spinners Axar Patel and Yuzvendra Chahal also failed with the ball on Sunday. Akshar bowled just one over and conceded 19 runs. Gavaskar also questioned the promotion of the all-rounder before a finisher like Dinesh Karthik.
“Definitely (Karthik should have come ahead of Akshar), there is no question about it. Sometimes, there are labels that you are a finisher so you think he is going to come after the 15th over or after that, ‘You can’t come in the 12th or 13th over’. And we have seen this happen in IPL as well, a lot of teams have kept some of their big hitters only for the last 4-5 overs when in fact they can be sent first because they have the ability to work the ball. Gavaskar said.
Akshar could only score 10 runs in 11 balls, while Karthik scored an unbeaten 30 in 21 balls to make Team India 148/6 while batting first.