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'I can't answer this question': Gautam Gambhir slams Hardik Pandya over Yuzvendra Chahal call, 'Makes no sense to me'
Spinners ruled the roost during the second T20I between India and New Zealand.
The second T20I between India and New Zealand proved to be an extremely low-scoring thriller, with the batters struggling to find any fluency in their innings and the spinners ruling the roost. New Zealand were limited to a meagre score of 99/8 in their 20 overs and India could get over the line only off the second last ball of their own innings.
It was Yuzvendra Chahal who started chipping away at the New Zealand batting lineup. He flummoxed the dangerous Finn Allen with his third ball of the match. Chahal bowled one more over and overall gave away just four runs in 12 balls. However, surprisingly, captain Hardik Pandya did not give him another over after that. Former India batter Gautam Gambhir was not too happy with the move.
“Massive surprise. I can't answer this question, that too on a wicket like this. Chahal is your number one spinner the T20 format. Just asking him to bowl two overs and in that he got the important wicket of Finn Allen and then not using his full quota of overs makes no sense to me,” said Gambhir on Star Sports after the match.
Pandya, Kuldeep Yadav and Deepak Hooda were the only bowlers who bowled their full quota of over while Washington Sundar had one more left. While Pandya was the only pacer to bowl until the last two overs, the all-rounder tossed the ball to Arshdeep Singh for two overs towards the end and asked Shivam Mavi to bowl the last over.
Gambhir said that India could have got New Zealand all out for 80-85 runs had Chahal been given one more over to bowl at the death. “Yes, you want to give young guys another opportunity like Arshdeep Singh or Shivam Mavi. But then you could have bowled Chahal in the last over as well, or earlier. So I feel he missed a trick. He could have got New Zealand bowled for maybe 80 or 85 and on this kind of pitch, you don't want to let the opposition off the hook. Massive surprise, asking Hooda to bowl four overs but not Chahal,” said Gambhir.
