Gautam Gambhir inspects the Rajkot pitch prior to the 3rd T20I match between India and England.© BCCI
It is an open secret that the Indian cricket team management, under the coaching of Gautam Gambhir, is fond of the left and right-hand combination in batting. Only if anyone had any doubt about it, the third T20I against England in Rajkot became a telling example. The Indian cricket team tried to maintain the combination throughout the game during the chase against England and this saw a batter of Dhruv Jurel’s calibre coming out to the crease at the eighth spot, with the likes of Washington Sundar and Axar Patel going ahead of him in the batting order.
Former England captain Kevin Pietersen slammed India’s batting strategy and questioned why Jurel came in so late to bat. What made the strategy look all more awry was the fact that Sundar scored 6 off 15 and Axar hit 15 off 16. To add to it, India went on to lose the game by 26 runs.
“In the last match, Dhurv Jurel didn’t even get to bat. What is he in the team for? I don’t like this right and left combination. You bat your best batters and give them the best chance to bat more balls, be it at the top of the order, at No.3 or No.4. If you keep thinking left-right, right-left, you put your best batters out of the game. I have criticised teams who have gone with this thought process,” Pietersen said on Star Sports before the start of the fourth T20I.
Indian batters faltered against an incisive England bowling attack as the visitors raised their game in a must-win scenario to win the third T20I by 26 runs on Tuesday.
It was Varun Chakravarthy’s bowling effort that stood out as his five-wicket haul helped India limit England to 171/9. India should have chased down the target but the batters could only manage 145/9 in 20 overs.
India went on to win the fourth T20I by 15 runs and sealed the series with a match to go.
(With PTI Inputs)
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