Former Indian wicket-keeper batter Dinesh Karthik reckons spin-bowling all-rounder did an expected job in the fourth T20I against New Zealand at the Hnry Stadium, Wellington. Patel returned with figures of 1-36 in his quota of four overs and accounted for in-form Glenn Phillips.
Karthik said Patel’s performance was nothing outstanding or fancy as he didn’t bowl in the Powerplay overs. The RCB assistant coach said Nitish Kumar Reddy giving four overs as a fifth bowler are great signs for the team. Reddy returned with decent figures of 1-38 in his four overs.
Dinesh Karthik said on Cricbuzz, “Axar Patel has been as good as he has ever been in this series. But Axar giving 36 in four overs is decent and not great because he didn’t bowl an over in the powerplay. Solely bowling in the middle overs, his figures are par. It’s nothing outstanding or fancy. It’s a credible effort, though, as he bowled to set batters.
“Nitish giving you four overs is gold. He’s able to hold his own ground as a bowler, which is good news for India.”
On the other hand, Karthik said Shreyas Iyer likes to bowl the main bowlers early in the innings and thus he gave the penultimate over to Nitish Kumar Reddy.
“Nitish bowling the 19th over is more Shreyas Iyer’s style of captaincy. He frontloads his bowlers and hopes to pick wickets. Then, to the less accomplished batters, he doesn’t mind bowling the lesser bowlers. It’s a good strategy, and it has worked,” said Karthik (via the aforementioned source).
“Nitish has shown the ability to bowl the yorker. If he tries five, he lands three to four. But because he’s slightly slow, when he doesn’t land it, it goes for a boundary. It has to be viewed with the right lens. If you judge him by how you would judge Bhuvneshwar Kumar or Arshdeep, then it’s unfair to Nitish Kumar Reddy.”
The fourth T20I between India and New Zealand will be played at Eden Park, Auckland on Friday.
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