Former Indian batter Mohammad Kaif believes Shubman Gill will not be happy with India’s bowling performance in the ODI series against the West Indies. India conceded 405 runs in the second game at Guwahati and then could not defend despite putting 351 runs on the board at New Chandigarh on Saturday.
Gill is still young in his ODI captaincy career and he hasn’t had a full strength bowling line-up at his disposal. Jasprit Bumrah, Axar Patel and Arshdeep Singh were part of the Asian Games squad whereas Harshit Rana and Hardik Pandya are currently recovering from injuries.
Thus, India was forced to give chances to second-string bowlers but they could not deliver the goods.
Earlier, Gill has lost ODI series against Australia, England and New Zealand. In 15 ODI under his captaincy, India has managed eight wins and seven losses.
“As a captain in ODIs, Gill has lost against big teams. And these teams will challenge us in the World Cup. If he keeps his hand on his heart and speaks, I am sure he is not happy. He also spoke about death over bowling. I feel for him because he is a young captain and the time is tough. There are no issues in the batting. But when it comes to bowling, he does not have a lot to work with,” he said in a video on his YouTube channel.
Kaif highlighted that gun fast bowler Jasprit Bumrah has played a key role in India’s success in big matches of ICC tournaments.
“Bumrah is still the factor in bowling at the end of the day. Because of Bumrah we won the T20 World Cup, see that semifinal and final matches. If we go even behind, even in the 2024 final it was Bumrah. 90% of the trophies won, Bumrah has played a role in all of them. We are searching for the next Bumrah and Hardik. Gill would have said we needed Bumrah for the ODIs. It was high-scoring and West Indies scored so many runs. I feel bad for Gill as captain because he might feel a bit down right now.”
Bumrah has been rested for the upcoming T20I series against the West Indies.
