Former India pacer Ashish Nehra has admitted that he was left surprised on how new skipper Rishabh Pant utilised leg-spinner Yuzvendra Chahal, saying that when South Africa batters David Milleer and Rassie van der Dussen were going big.
Chahal got his third over with South Africa needing just four runs off the final over, which they achieved the target with five balls remaining, leaving the leg-spinner with figures of 0/26 in 2.1 overs. His left-arm spin counterpart, Axar Patel, bowled his four overs consistently in the middle overs phase and had figures of 1/40 in four overs.
“The opposition scored 212 and Chahal bowled merely two overs. It wasn’t as if he conceded 22 runs in one over. You know that the runs are flowing. Even Axar Patel bowled an over to the left-handed David Miller. So, it was very surprising for me that a bowler like Yuzvendra Chahal bowled only two while the opposition made 212 runs,” said Nehra on Cricbuzz after the match ended in South Africa’s favour.
Further explaining his point, Nehra, the head coach of IPL 2022 winners Gujarat Titans, remarked, “Even Rassie van der Dussen was there. Even if you’re looking at the left-right combination, you did bowl Axar Patel. So, I think you should’ve bowled Chahal around the tenth over. I can understand the thinking that you would want to contain the flow of runs, but once David Miller started hitting sixes off almost every over, you had to bring Chahal in.”
Nehra pointed out that if the Indian team management felt that Chahal should have bowled another over in the middle phase of the innings, they should have sent a message to Pant.
“Rishabh Pant is a young captain, he’s just 24-25 right now. He will learn and hopefully, he will get better as a skipper.”
South Africa beat India by seven wickets to go 1-0 in the five-match T20I series.
