Former Indian player Gautam Gambhir said that Arshdeep Singh needs to stick to the basics and keep things simple if he wants to avoid bowling no-balls in the limited-overs format. However, Arshdeep’s tale of no-balls made headlines recently and he did the same in the T20I series between India and New Zealand as well.
While bowling the final over of the New Zealand innings in the 1st T20I, Arshdeep Singh started the proceedings with a front foot no ball which went for a six by Daryl Mitchell. The Indian pace bowler ended up conceding 27 runs in the final over as New Zealand managed to post a match-winning total of 176/6 in 20 overs at Ranchi as well. Sharing his views in series opener, Gautam Gambhir stated that bowling no balls is ‘absolutely unacceptable’ in international cricket.
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“I think. these numbers are fine, It can go south and it can go north. But the most important thing is you can’t afford to bowl those no-balls. That is absolutely unacceptable, especially at this level, and it can come back to hurt you and the team big time,” Gambhir told Star Sports.
“And that is exactly what happened in the previous game. Just keep the basics right. See, World Cup conditions are completely different from what you normally get back home. In Australia, it was swinging and it was still bouncing, decent carry as well with the new ball. But when you play at the sub-continent, these are flat wickets,” Gambhir further added.
He also added that Arshdeep doesn’t have the lethal pace in his bowling which can help premier batters. While taking the names of other pacers like Umran Malik and Mohammed Siraj, Gambhir urged Arshdeep Singh to develop variations in his bowling as well.
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“You gonna have something different up your sleeves whether it’s a slower one or a slower bouncer. Some kind of variation. Unfortunately, he doesn’t have the speed to actually rattle the batsmen. So he’s got to develop some variation. He is not Umran Malik, he’s not Mohammed Siraj. So one thing he needs to do is probably try and keep it very simple and sort his no balls out which is equally important,” Gautam Gambhir concluded.
