Former Indian fast bowler Varun Aaron questioned Shreyas Iyer’s tactics after India suffered a six-wicket loss against the West Indies at Ranchi on Friday. Aaron reckons Iyer should have bowled Mayank Yadav ahead of Arshdeep Singh for the 18th over of the innings.
Singh conceded 17 runs in the 18th over as Romario Shepherd took him to the cleaners, smashing two fours and a six. Aaron said Yadav had the confidence under his belt as he had already taken three wickets in the Powerplay.
Yadav provided a perfect start to the team, getting rid of Shimron Hetmyer and Kamil Pooran in the opening over. Furthermore, he got the big wicket of Rovman Powell in the last over of the Powerplay.
Varun Aaron said on Cricinfo, “I really thought Mayank should have bowled that over Arshdeep bowled towards the end. Because on a day when you’re getting wickets and you have the pace to force a wicket… At that point, India needed wickets. They didn’t need to really pull back the run scoring. And Mayank was amongst the wickets. He was bowling those brilliant deliveries.”
“On a ground where the 45-degree boundaries are quite big, he could have used the bouncer. He has a very good slow ball. So, Mayank Yadav was that bowler who could have gotten them a wicket. But in hindsight, obviously, everything looks very different,” the former India pacer went on to add.
On the other hand, the SRH bowling coach backed Iyer’s decision to give two overs to Shivam Dube after the Powerplay in dewy conditions.
He concluded, “You had to bowl Shivam Dube because there was a lot of dew. The captain is thinking that I need an insurance policy if the spinner isn’t able to grip the ball. Dube is a seasoned campaigner. It’s on him to deliver the goods. One more hindsight call. But this is something we may have seen coming before the game. Everyone knew there’ll be a lot of dew in Ranchi.”
The third T20I between India and the West Indies will be played at Indore on Sunday.
