Former Indian wicket-keeper bat Parthiv Patel believes pressure will be on Shreyas Iyer as results haven’t gone India’s way. India suffered a 0-2 series loss against Ireland and thus Iyer’s captaincy stint didn’t start on a good note.
Furthermore, India have lost two T20Is against England, to add fuel to the fire. India suffered a 125-run loss against England in the third T20I of the series at Trent Bridge, Nottingham on Tuesday after they were bundled out for 76 in the run chase of 202.
However, Patel reckons Iyer hasn’t made any mistakes in rotating his bowlers so far as a leader in the ongoing series against the hosts.
Iyer has been backed by the selectors after he has found a lot of success as a leader in the IPL.
“Obviously, the results have not gone in his favor. There is no doubt about that. However, considering the way India are playing, if you try to judge just the captaincy, it doesn’t seem like Shreyas Iyer has made any blunder as a captain, that he bowled a spinner when a fast bowler should have been bowled or vice versa. He hasn’t done anything like that,” Parthiv Patel said on JioHotstar.
Patel credited Iyer for getting his main bowlers into action from overs 13 to 16.
“Even in the middle, he knew that wickets were required between the 13th and 16th overs. So, he gave bowling to his main bowlers. He was trying to close the game there. I didn’t find anything lacking in the way he used his personnel,” Parthiv observed.
On the other hand, Parthiv Patel questioned Harshit Rana for using slower balls from the get-go in his first over.
“The shortcoming has been seen in the kind of planning from the bowling coach. If you know the ball is seaming a little from the pitch or is swinging a little, why was Harshit Rana using the slower ones in the first over itself? Did he come with the thought process beforehand that he had to bowl slower ones? This is a specialty of the T20 format. These things keep changing in every over,” he said.
The former Gujarat captain said Rana’s over released the pressure after Arshdeep Singh started with a maiden.
“You have to adjust according to the conditions. You might have pre-planned that you would use the slower one, but the pitch was doing something else at that time. Arshdeep Singh bowled a maiden over. You bowled two slower ones, and the game changed entirely. India needs to come out of their defensive thinking,” Parthiv observed.
The fourth T20I between England and India will be played at Bristol, County Ground on Thursday.
