Former Indian batter Robin Uthappa feels the only reason India didn’t win the semi-final clash against England was that their bowling had an off day at the office. India’s bowling looked toothless as they failed to even take a single wicket. England went on to register a dominating win of 10 wickets as Alex Hales and Jos Buttler tormented India’s bowling attack.
England openers smashed 63 runs in the PowerPlay overs while chasing 169 runs and they gave no chance to the Rohit Sharma-led team. In fact, Rohit also admitted that they didn’t turn up with the ball in the all-important semi-final.
Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Arshdeep Singh had got swing in the Super 12 stage to trouble the opposition but there wasn’t any help for them against England in the semis. Furthermore, the spin duo of Ravichandran Ashwin and Axar Patel didn’t look threatening at all and many cricket experts feel Yuzvendra Chahal should have been part of the team.
Speaking to Sportskeeda, Uthappa said: “When we were going to Australia, we did not have a lot of confidence in our bowling. (Jasprit) Bumrah wasn’t there, Bhuvi (Bhuvneshwar Kumar) wasn’t bowling well at the death, Harshal (Patel) was struggling at the death. (Mohammed) Shami was coming back after a year. (Ravichandran) Ashwin and (Yuzvendra) Chahal’s form was also not good.
“India was successful because they bowled so well. The only reason we didn’t win the semis was because our bowling had an off day. It was a timid kind of effort with bat and ball.”
On the other hand, India could only manage 38-1 in the first six overs of their batting innings. Hardik Pandya was able to accelerate towards the end of the innings in the last three overs and his knock of 33-ball 63 helped the team in posting 168 runs on the board.
Meanwhile, Uthappa feels there were question marks on Indian spinners as both Ashwin and Patel are defensive in their approach.
“There were question marks over India’s spinners. There were doubts that they would get found out somewhere. In big matches, they proved ineffective. There was no turn and the finger spinners in Ravichandran Ashwin and Axar Patel could not make an impact. India did not play a leg-spinner (Chahal). We made a lot of mistakes.”
On the other hand, Uthappa feels Pakistan’s bowling attack is the best in the world and that is why they were able to reach the final.
“Pakistan were among the top four teams for me because their bowling is easily one of the best in the world at the moment. It is one of the reasons they have been so successful and got into the final. Their batting was patchy throughout the tournament.”
