Rishabh Pant's captaincy in the first T20I against South Africa at the Arun Jaitley Stadium has come under sever criticism with many veteran Indian cricketers including Zaheer Khan and Ashish Nehra slamming the youngster for his tactic that saw India lose by seven wickets despite setting a colossal target of 212. And the latest to join the bandwagon is former Pakistan cricketer Danish Kaneria.
KL Rahul was slated to lead the Indian side in the absence of Rohit Sharma who has been rested for the series, but following the former's injury, Pant was named as the captain with Hardik Pandya as his deputy.
Although he lost the toss, Ishan Kishan's might 76 helped India set a 212-run target. However, ab impressive century stand between David Miller and Rassie van der Dussen, for the fourth wicket, helped South Africa wrap up the chase with five balls to spare.
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Kaneria was unhappy with the manner in which Pant rotated the bowlers which included the issue with Yuzvendra Chahal not completing his quota of four overs.
"India lost first T/20 against South Africa. Rishabh Pant leading the team in absence of KL Rahul as he is out of the series due to injury. Pant lacked in captaincy defending 211 Pant rotated the bowlers poorly. Bringing Chahal in powerplay was not a good option when Axar was a better option and rotation of fast bowler overs and giving Hardik just one over," Kaneria said on the KOO App.
{{/usCountry}}"India lost first T/20 against South Africa. Rishabh Pant leading the team in absence of KL Rahul as he is out of the series due to injury. Pant lacked in captaincy defending 211 Pant rotated the bowlers poorly. Bringing Chahal in powerplay was not a good option when Axar was a better option and rotation of fast bowler overs and giving Hardik just one over," Kaneria said on the KOO App.
{{/usCountry}}Earlier, former India pacer Nehra questioned the logic behind giving Chahal only 2.1 overs to bowl during South Africa's chase.
"It is very surprising to me that a bowler like him only bowled 2 overs today. He should have bowled to the van der Dussen-Miller pair, especially at the stage when South Africa were back in the chase. Rishabh Pant surely made a mistake over there. He also was frantic in the powerplay, using five bowlers for six overs," Nehra told Cricbuzz.