Former Indian all-rounder Ravichandran Ashwin has questioned the management’s tactics after the fourth T20I against New Zealand. Team India suffered a 50-run loss against the Kiwis at Visakhapatnam on Wednesday after they were bowled out for 165 while chasing 216.
Ashwin reckons India missed a finger spinner in the middle overs in the penultimate match of the series. India played with two wrist spinners in the playing XI – Kuldeep Yadav and Ravi Bishnoi. The team’s think tank decided to rest Varun Chakravarthy whereas Axar Patel, the team’s vice-captain, is yet to fully recover from the finger injury, which he suffered in the series opener.
“We did not have a finger spinner yesterday. This could be another issue if we encounter such conditions in the World Cup. You have to adapt to the situations. Especially when you play in Sri Lanka. A finger spinner can come in handy there. I liked the combination that they tried, but this could have been done a little earlier. It is okay to lose such a game. This could happen even in the World Cup. In T20 cricket, you can still lose by playing soft cricket and going bang bang. But it is better to take the second route and lose,” Ashwin said on ‘Ash ki Baat’.
On the other hand, the former off-spinner said the batters will need to play with more responsibility after India’s crushing loss.
“To judge this series completely on the context of World Cup is difficult. I am not able to make sense of it. But I can understand what the team management tried to do. The only one thing missing was I wanted to see Varun and Kuldeep playing together. He was missing. If you play with this combination with an extra bowler, the batting department will have to play with more responsibility. You cannot play how you play when there is the depth of the eighth batter,” he said.
Ashwin also urged opener Abhishek Sharma to conservatively build his innings.
“Abhishek can play how he does, but he has to conservatively construct the innings a little more. You have to slightly dive into the older school. In six overs, you can stay near 50-55, and then you can try and accelerate. We have to keep in mind that cricket will always be a game of adaptivity. You have to keep the conditions in front of you in mind.”
The fifth and final T20I between India and New Zealand will be played at Thiruvanthapuram on Saturday.
