Former Indian batter Mohammad Kaif questioned Suryakumar Yadav’s captaincy after India suffered a huge loss of 76 runs against South Africa at the Narendra Modi Stadium, Ahmedabad on Sunday. Bumrah returned with impressive figures of 3-15 in his quota of four overs as he was right on the money.

The ace pacer clean bowled Quinton de Kock and then bamboozled Ryan Rickelton with a slower delivery. Bumrah accounted for Corbin Bosch in the death overs. The gun fast bowler bowled two overs in the Powerplay overs and then the remaining two at the fag end of the innings.

Kaif reckons Suryakumar Yadav should have brought on Bumrah when David Miller and Dewald Brevis were going strongly in the middle overs. The left and right-hand batting pair added 97 runs off 50 balls after South Africa were tottering at 20-3.

Kaif said on his YouTube Channel, “We lost the match between the 7th and 15th over. You used Bumrah’s two overs early and kept the remaining two for the death. But Rohit Sharma never used Bumrah like this.

The former UP batter said Bumrah should have bowled only one over in the Powerplay and then he could have bowled one more in the middle overs.

“He bowled one over in the middle to break a partnership. There is a big gap between his spells. There is no bigger match-winner in this team than Bumrah. They need to bowl him for just one over in the powerplay, and then get him to bowl the 11th or 12th,” he added.

India will next take on Zimbabwe at the MA Chidambaram Stadium, Chennai, on Thursday.