Former Indian batter Mohammad Kaif criticized the team’s think tank for sending injured Washington Sundar to bat in the series opener against New Zealand. Sundar suffered a side strain in the first innings after bowling five overs and conceding 27 runs.
After Harshit Rana’s dismissal, Sundar walked out to bat despite carrying an injury and scored a run-a-ball seven in the run-chase of 301. Kaif recalled that the Indian captain Shubman Gill didn’t bat when he suffered a neck injury during the Kolkata Test against South Africa.
Sundar was later ruled out of the remaining two ODIs against the Kiwis, with Ayush Badoni replacing him. Kaif said Sundar’s injury affected the running between the wickets as he was not in a physical condition to run two.
Mohammad Kaif said on his YouTube Channel, “You will remember when Shubman Gill was injured, he did not come out to bat in that Test match, the Kolkata Test. It was a high-scoring game and people thought that even 20 or 30 runs from him could help India win, but he still did not bat. That was done to give full protection to the player so the injury would not aggravate. But the same approach was not applied with Sundar. That is why I feel it was a wrong call. KL Rahul’s running between the wickets was affected. Even though India won the match, I feel there were higher chances of aggravating the injury in yesterday’s game.”
“If he is injured and you need runs at a run-a-ball, you should first try someone else. When a player is injured and you send him in under pressure, the injury can worsen. He couldn’t run doubles even though the ball was going to deep point or square leg, and he was only managing singles. Although the required run rate was around a run-a-ball and the match was under control, I felt that sending an injured player was risky. What might have been a one-week or ten-day injury could stretch to 20, 25, or even 30 days,” he added.
The former UP batter said the team management could have sent Kuldeep Yadav out to bat ahead of Sundar.
“I believe that was a wrong call. You could have sent Kuldeep, or anyone else, even Siraj or Prasidh Krishna, if you just needed to play out the run-a-ball situation. Only when it becomes absolutely unavoidable, right at the end, should you send Washington Sundar.”
The second ODI between India and New Zealand will be played at Rajkot on Wednesday.
