A decorative former Indian cricketer Gautam Gambhir has lashed out at Indian opener Ishan Kishan for his mediocre performance during the T20I leg against New Zealand. While the expectations were high from the Indian opener after hitting a stunning double century in Bangladesh, Ishan failed to perform up to the reputation.
In the first two matches of the series, Ishan could only manage to score 4 and 19 as the Indian opener failed to capitalize on the opportunity. After Ishan was cleaned up by New Zealand's Michael Bracewell for a forgetful score of 4 off 5 balls in the 1st T20I at Ranchi, the Indian opener was run out in the second T20I. Meanwhile, Gautam Gambhir has given a stern warning to the Indian batter by suggesting he learns to rotate strike on a regular basis, instead of going for a hit on every alternate delivery.
The World-cup winning batter also claimed that the entire batting line struggled against spin. “It's not only chink in his armour. Indian unit as a batting unit has struggled against spin. Just the ability to not be able to manoeuvre. It is easy to hit those big sixes but the ability to rotate strikes consistently. It was pretty much evident when you got Michael Bracewell against Ishan Kishan," Gambhir told Star Sports.
The Indian batter also opined that these young players need to learn quickly the art of rotating strike. “It's not going to be easy to go down the ground and hit those sixes. It’s a surprise because of the way he batted in Bangladesh after scoring that double-hundred. He has struggled after that, everyone thought his graph will start growing up with the kind of innings he has played,” Gambhir played.
He also advised Ishan to work on his ability to play spin better as teams will use a lot of spin against him in the first six overs. “The sooner he improves against spin, the better it's going to be for him, especially in the T20 format,” Gambhir concluded.
