Former Indian wicket-keeper bat Dinesh Karthik reckons skipper Shreyas Iyer will feel the pinch a little bit after India suffered a four-wicket loss against England at Old Trafford, Manchester on Saturday. India have not won a single T20I after winning the World Cup and lost the two-match series against Ireland under Iyer’s captaincy.
The Men in Blue haven’t been able to bring their best and Karthik said there will be questions asked about team’s mundane showing despite it not being a crisis situation. The RCB assistant coach said there will be questions raised regarding Ravi Bishnoi’s performance, who conceded 60 runs in his quota of four overs, including 29 runs in 17th over of the innings.
Dinesh Karthik said on Sky Sports Cricket, “I wouldn’t say crisis, but yes, India are not a team that are used to losing three on the bounce, and that too, two to Ireland. So, there will be pressure, questions asked. What are the changes they can make? If you look at how they have matched up this game, the batting was okay. The bowling, I think Ravi Bishnoi will be a question. What do we do? How do we change up things?
“There’s only a couple of days in between this game and the next one. So, is there something that they can work on? So, questions will be asked, but will they? I don’t think it’s a crisis, but Shreyas Iyer will feel the pinch a little bit. As much as he’s putting a brave front right now, he will know that, as a leader, they’ll need some results,” he added.
On the other hand, Karthik hailed England’s Jacob Bethell, who played a match-winning knock of 76 runs off 46 balls and was awarded Player of the Match.
“He’s (Jacob Bethell) a very confident lad. I think he’s still learning the ropes of what it means to be an international cricketer, a T20 cricketer. As you can see, if you do look at this innings with a very huge lens, so to say, and watch him closely, he didn’t start off quite as much as he would have liked in terms of power or the shot-making. It was Brook who helped him at the start, and it was Tom Banton who actually got the innings going through the middle.
The third T20I between England and India will be played at Nottingham on Tuesday.
