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Dravid, Hardik try to stop Chahal as he walks out to bat in last over but umpires step in amid utter confusion
Things may not have changed much had Mukesh been sent ahead of Chahal but India, surely, could have planned it better to avoid confusion in the last over.
For all his qualities as a terrific white-ball cricketer, Yuzvendra Chahal is least known for his batting. The India leg-spinner has so far scored just six runs in his entire T20I career. He has only 802 runs across formats including first-class, List A and all T20 cricket. One, therefore, shouldn't blame the Indian team management for having little confidence in Chahal's batting. But their realisation of the same came a bit too late during the India vs West Indies first T20I at the Brian Lara Stadium in Tarouba. As a result, it nearly resulted in an embarrassing situation for the No.1-ranked T20I side.
When Kuldeep Yadav was clean bowled by Romario Shepherd in the first ball of the 20th over of India's chase, the visitors still required 10 runs off 5 balls with two wickets in hand. Arshdeep Singh, who had kept India alive with a couple of boundaries in the 19th over, was at the non-striker's end.
India still had a sniff. As Kuldeep was walking back to the pavilion, in walked Chahal all geared up only to realise that coach Rahul Dravid and captain Hardik Pandya wanted Mukesh Kumar, the debutant, to bat at No.10 and not him. Perplexed by the noise coming from the dugout, Chahal decided to walk back as Mukesh tried to hurry onto the field. But he wasn't allowed to do so.
According to the laws of the game, once a batter steps onto the field at the fall of a wicket, he can't go back and send another. Chahal had to rush his way back into the middle.
He got off the mark with a single off his first ball but Arshdeep could not hit the boundaries and was run out in the penultimate ball, leaving Mukesh to hit a last-ball six. The pacer could only manage a single as the West Indies won by four runs to take a 1-0 lead in the five-match series.
Things may not have changed much had Mukesh been sent ahead of Chahal as there is little data to suggest that the right-arm pacer is anywhere near as useful with the bat as he is with the ball but surely the Indian think tank could have planned it better.
Hardik, Samson's wickets in 16th over turns India vs West Indies 1st T20I
For its better part, the series opener showed little signs of culminating into a thriller. As it turned out, it went down to the last ball. As captain Hardik Pandya said in the post-match presentation, India were largely in control of the 150-run chase till Suryakumar Yadav and Tilak Varma were in the middle. But a stunning catch from Shimron Hetmyer that sent SKY back to the pavilion started to make things turbulent for the visitors. The second turning point of the match came when Pandya was bowled and Sanju Samson was run out in Jason Holder's 16th over, which was also a maiden.
India's equation was 37 off 24 balls with four wickets in hand. Despite the slow nature of the pitch, a modern-day top T20 side would back its lower-order to knock off those runs. But not India. Their lower-order in white-ball cricket oozes the least confidence. With Kuldeep, Arshdeep, Chahal, and Mukesh to come, Axar had little option but to score the majority of the remaining runs.
He did hit a six in the 18th over but was holed out at long on at the start of the 19th over.
