Former India opener Aakash Chopra has raised concerns over India’s team selection in white-ball cricket after of the third T20I against West Indies. He pointed out the challenges India is facing while balancing their batting and bowling combinations.
Chopra highlighted India’s need for an additional fast bowler to strengthen their bowling attack. In the third game, India decided to add Prince Yadav and Nitish Kumar Reddy to their playing XI in place of Kuldeep Yadav and Shivam Dube.
“You will have to actually play a bowler that allows you to bowl at the top and the tail. If you go with only two pacers, it’s going to be a problem in white-ball cricket. If you bowl two or three overs of Arshdeep Singh at the top, you have the temptation at times to take one more wicket if two wickets have fallen, then you know you will have nothing at the back end,” Aakash Chopra said on Star Sports.
Chopra added that the addition of Prince Yadav gave Shreyas Iyer more options in the bowling department.
“Mayank Yadav is your new-ball bowler, mostly. However, you had to hold back his overs as well because you had only two fast bowlers, but now, when you have Prince Yadav, somebody who is almost like a specialist in the death overs, with the reverse swing and the yorkers, it gives you a bit more options. Nitish Kumar Reddy is a utility bowler, and Naman Dhir is growing in stature,” Chopra observed.
The renowned commentator pointed out that Kuldeep Yadav had to be left out of the playing XI because of Indian seamers’ inability to bat at number eight.
“The fact is that because none of your three fast bowlers can bat at No. 8, you end up compromising Kuldeep Yadav. If Harshit Rana was playing, or Deepak Chahar or Shardul Thakur were playing, if there was a bowler like that who could give you batting, you could have played Kuldeep as well,” he said.
However, Prince Yadav and Arshdeep Singh gave crucial contributions with the bat, scoring 13 and 11 runs respectively.
Chopra said Kuldeep Yadav could have proved handy at Indore as there was no dew.
“Kuldeep would have been very useful today (Sunday). There was no dew today. Roston Chase was the pick of the bowlers. The spinners have done well. So that one thing will remain for sure, because our fast bowlers are not batting,” Chopra observed.
The fourth T20I between India and the West Indies will be played at Hyderabad on Wednesday.
