Former Indian Test opener Aakash Chopra questioned Mumbai Indians’ bowling and Hardik Pandya’s captaincy despite the team’s six-wicket win against Kolkata Knight Riders at the Wankhede Stadium, Mumbai on Sunday.
Chopra questioned MI for conceding 220 runs on the board despite having the services of gun fast bowler Jasprit Bumrah. The ace pacer conceded 35 runs in his quota of four overs and he was the most economical bowler of the night.
“Bowlers, are you there? It’s not like teams have weak bowling or don’t have bowlers available. I can understand that it was an issue with RCB and SRH, but it wasn’t the case with Mumbai. Mumbai have Jasprit Bumrah. Jasprit Bumrah is in your team and you still conceded 220, and it’s the IPL, not a World Cup game. I mean, what is happening?” Aakash Chopra said on his YouTube Channel.
Chopra questioned Hardik Pandya’s utilization of his bowlers against KKR.
“The captaincy is also being seen a little. Only two bowlers bowled back-to-back overs. One was Hardik Pandya himself and the other was Jasprit Bumrah. I am talking about the Mumbai bowling innings. He bowled Trent Boult in four different spells. He is a new-ball bowler,” the former India opener observed.
“He was made to bowl just one over, and he was stopped after that. I am wondering about the way the bowlers are being rotated, where you are not giving anyone continuous overs. In fact, even a single run wasn’t scored on the off side in the first five overs. We tend to overthink the issue many times,” he added.
On the other hand, Chopra also questioned Ajinkya Rahane’s captaincy for not bowling Sunil Narine in the Powerplay when Rohit Sharma and Ryan Rickelton were going all guns blazing.
“Ultimately, 220 runs were conceded and they were chased easily as well. Here I will talk about Ajinkya Rahane. You didn’t bring Narine in the powerplay. Your bowling is already weak, and then you were bowling short balls to Rohit Sharma,” he said.
Chopra further noted that stand-in KKR skipper Rinku Singh did not let Sunil Narine complete his quota of four overs.
“You won’t be able to escape by bowling short balls to Rohit Sharma. Then Sunil Narine bowled only three overs. He was called to bowl the 19th over when the match was already over. Are we actually watching the same game? So many runs were being scored and you didn’t want someone to bowl more,” Chopra observed.
KKR will next take on Sunrisers Hyderabad at the Eden Gardens, Kolkata, on Thursday.
