Former India player RP Singh feels Shubman Gill and Ishan Kishan’s batting is one of concern for India heading into the remaining matches of the ongoing T20I series against the West Indies. However, Gill and Kishan scored seven and 27 runs respectively as India all set a 153-run target for the Windies in the second T20I in Guyana on Sunday, August 6. Meanwhile, West Indies won the first two games with two wickets and seven deliveries to spare as well.
During a discussion on JioCinema, RP Singh said: “I feel the opening pair’s batting should be a slight area of concern for the Indian batting lineup. The way they are batting, they are not exhibiting that much confidence. The opening pair will have to analyze their game a little more. If we talk about Shubman Gill, he played some shots where he probably didn’t see the ball’s line at all and got beaten. He tried to hit straight with hard hands and the ball went over point.”
RP Singh again shared: “Ishan Kishan tries to hit the ball very hard. But both batters are unable to connect the ball properly. The powerplay didn’t go that well for us. We couldn’t score runs and lost wickets as well. The confidence to move your feet and play the drive was also not seen.”
While showing disappointment over Sanju Samson’s failure to grab his opportunity, RP Singh added that Hardik Pandya has altered his approach. He shared: “Sanju Samson also got an opportunity here but he couldn’t do anything special. Tilak Varma batted well and ultimately he also got out to a left-arm spinner. I feel Hardik Pandya has changed his game. He is probably trying to take a little more responsibility and stay till the end so that he can play the big shots in the 19th or 20th over, but he is not reaching there. Axar Patel also couldn’t do anything special.”
However, RP Singh has questioned Hardik Pandya’s captaincy in the second T20I between India and the West Indies which India lost as well. He said Pandya should have bowled Axar Patel considering the turn Yuzvendra Chahal and Ravi Bishnoi extracted from the pitch as well.
“Even Axar won’t know what his role is. I feel he should have been bowled. It’s not that if you have two left-handed batters in front of you, you can’t be bowled. You have to see how he can be bowled. There was spin seen on the wicket when Yuzi Chahal and Bishnoi were bowling. It was to be seen how Axar would have bowled but he wasn’t handed the ball at all. It’s a little bad for him as well that you are playing him but not giving him the ball. Yes, Nicholas Pooran was batting well. As a bowler, you could have given him a single and got the other batter on strike and bowled dots to him,” he added.
However, Hardik Pandya held back Yuzvendra Chahal for the 20th over. RP Singh praised his captaincy at the start of the West Indies innings. He stated that the Indian skipper might have erred in his calculation in not giving Chahal his final over.
“If we see at the start, the captaincy was good. You came to bowl yourself and picked up wickets. Then he waited to introduce the spinners when Nicholas Pooran was batting. Then Mukesh Kumar got Pooran out. After that, I feel he miscalculated. Yuzi Chahal picked up two wickets in an over and there was a run-out as well along with that. West Indies had lost eight wickets. If another wicket had fallen, it would have been difficult in the last over. I feel Yuzi Chahal should have bowled the 18th over,” he concluded.
