Former Indian opener Kris Srikkanth believes crucial players like Hardik Pandya and Jasprit Bumrah should not play all the five games in the T20I series against New Zealand. With the T20 World Cup on the cards, Srikkanth said India can not afford untimely injuries.
India’s vice-captain Axar Patel suffered a finger injury while fielding on his own bowling and thus could not complete his fourth over. Meanwhile, Pandya and Bumrah are two pivotal players in India’s playing XI and have had injury and fitness issues in the recent past.
“I would still prefer India batting first and playing like this. But I want to also see them chasing 200 so it is a practice. It will be challenging in the World Cup if you are chasing and in every situation you will not get to bat first always. My only concern in injury. Axar got injured and we don’t want key players getting injured. I think the likes of Bumrah and Hardik should not play a game or two. There should be rotation because there is no time for recovery if you get injured,” Kris Srikkanth said on ‘Cheeky Cheeka’.
The 1983 World Cup winning player rued the fact that Indian skipper Suryakumar Yadav could not convert his start. SKY scored a decent knock of 32 runs off just 22 balls and Srikkanth said the right-hander should have scored a fifty.
“What are you doing Surya? You got out for 32, you had a 50 in your hands. It has been a long time. He played well. He was riding with Abhishek Sharma. He should have just continued like that for a while more,” he said.
The former opener said India was able to put the game to bed when they posted an above-par score of 238 runs on the board.
“When you bat first and score more than 200, you have psychologically won the battle. I will tell this as an opener, when you see a target of 250, you tend to get scared. You have to always go for hitting. Suppose India were chasing this target, it would have become compulsory for Abhishek to score big. It is that much more difficult when you are chasing. Batting first is always a big advantage for India.”
The second T20I between India and New Zealand will be played at Raipur on Friday.
