Former India player turned veteran commentator Aakash Chopra has opined on Team India’s bowling issues in their T20 World Cup 2026 match against South Africa. He also added that Suryakumar Yadav didn’t have the confidence to bowl Washington Sundar his full quota of four overs as well.

In a video shared on his YouTube channel, ‘Aakash Chopra,’ he said, “Two things are slightly glaring. It’s great to hear and see that you started with Bumrah and Arshdeep, and bowled three overs of one and two overs of the other. However, not even one over of Hardik is bowled in such a scenario. In my opinion, against a good team and on a good pitch, if you don’t bowl him two overs in the powerplay, he would concede around 40 runs when his four overs get completed, and he reached nearly 50 this time.”

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“Hardik needs to mandatorily bowl two overs in the powerplay for him to bowl four overs, when the opposing team and pitch are good. If you snatch those overs from him, you won’t be able to bowl Hardik Pandya his overs. After that, you are playing Washington Sundar, but you didn’t have the confidence to give him overs,” he further added.

However, Aakash Chopra also added that although Shivam Dube (1/32 in two overs) claimed a wicket, he proved extremely expensive.

“You brought Shivam Dube in the middle. He picked up a wicket for sure, but how many runs did he concede? When the powerplay overs finished, all that South Africa needed to do was to hit Varun Chakaravarthy. When Varun Chakaravarthy was hit, you didn’t know what to do. You couldn’t have gotten Bumrah and Arshdeep back. So the middle overs were like a free party for everyone, that they could come and score runs,” Aakash Chopra concluded.