Former Indian all-rounder Ravichandran Ashwin questioned India’s bowling performance in the five-match T20I series against New Zealand, which the visitors won by 3-2. India’s conceded more than 220 runs on two occasions in the series as the bowlers were taken to the cleaners.
Barring Arshdeep Singh and Bhuvneshwar Kumar, there was no experience in the fast bowling unit. Furthermore, Axar Patel wasn’t at his absolute best. All the Indian bowlers conceded their runs at an economy rate of more than 9.45. In fact, barring Arshdeep Singh, all the visiting bowlers were taken for more than 10 runs/over.
“It is a big concern. Look at how many times we have conceded over 200 runs. Especially in the last few games. I am praising the team. But you need to look into the bowling before it gets worse. There are new guys in the bowling lineup. But what I am finding difficult to understand is what planning do they have? What are the talks in the meetings? If you don’t address this, it will keep getting bigger. So I am concerned. There were some basic errors,” he said on ‘Ash ki Baat’.
Speaking on batters’ performances, Ashwin reckons the performances of Nitish Kumar Reddy, Tilak Varma, and Naman Dhir were the positives for India.
“Abhishek played a stunning innings. Sanju had one good innings. Vaibhav, Ishan, Tilak, all this is expected. For me, Nitish Kumar Reddy, Tilak Varma, and Naman Dhir were the positives. What they did is something we can carry forward. India definitely have to work on T20 bowling without Bumrah. Forget about the skills. Planning and execution were very average.”
The former CSK spinner said India could have lost the T20I series against New Zealand as they had conceded 225 runs in the series opener.
“India could have lost the first game after conceding 225. In the second game, they also came back from an unbelievable situation. So there was a very thin line. We could have actually lost 4-1. New Zealand dropped 16 catches. I want the team to go for excellence. If you want to push it under the carpet and say we won 3-2, great,” he said.
The first ODI between India and New Zealand will be played at Eden Park, Auckland, on Wednesday.
