India faced a five-wicket loss at the hands of arch-rivals Pakistan in their first match of the Super 4 stage. The Men in Blue could not defend 181 runs in their 20 overs hence gave away two points to Pakistan. There were quite a few reasons behind India’s defeat and their bowlers not getting wickets at regular intervals was one of them.
India had only five options to bowl with as Avesh Khan could not play. Hardik Pandya was one of those five bowlers. The all-rounder was expected to do the job of the third seamer after his heroics in the group stage game against the same opposition. However, as it turned out, Pandya was the most expensive bowler from India conceding 44 runs in his four overs.
Although Hardik dismissed Mohammad Rizwan and gave India an opening in the game, he had already conceded too many runs. He could not do much with the bat either as the all-rounder was dismissed for a duck. Now, India’s batting stalwart Cheteshwar Pujara has criticized India’s tactics to play Pandya as the fifth bowler. Pujara said that the all-rounder can’t be expected to produce four overs every time.
“Hardik has been bowling well, but we can’t consider him a fifth bowler. I think expecting four overs from him every time is not correct. However, we didn’t have enough choices because Avesh Khan was ill. In the future, there might be a few changes in the team, and if Hardik continues to play the role of the sixth bowler, it would be better,” Pujara was quoted saying during an interaction on ESPNCricinfo.
India didn’t bat well in middle overs: Pujara
Pujara pointed out another reason behind India’s defeat as he reckoned the team fell short by 15-20 runs while posting the total. The 34-year-old said that India did not bat well in the middle overs. “Our bowling could have been better, but I feel that we could have scored 15-20 more runs on this wicket. It was 190-200 wickets. We didn’t bat well during the middle overs,” the India batter added.
