Veteran cricketer Sunil Gavaskar believes that in the second T20 International played against West Indies in Ranchi, India made a big mistake by giving the crucial 17th over to Kuldeep Yadav instead of fast bowler Mayank Yadav or left-arm pacer Arshdeep Singh. Kuldeep gave away 24 runs in this over, which included three sixes and one four. Due to this, the Caribbean team chasing the target of 250 runs got the upper hand. West Indies won the match by six wickets and leveled the five-match series at 1-1.
Gavaskar admired Mayank's bowling
Express fast bowler Mayank Yadav had bowled 3 overs in the powerplay and by taking 3 wickets, he had pushed West Indies on the backfoot but after that he was not called to bowl. Gavaskar praised Mayank a lot. Also criticized Shreyas for not giving him the bowling on time. Gavaskar told Geostar, 'I would have called either Arshdeep or Mayank to bowl in the 17th over. Arshdeep gave away a lot of runs in his last over (18th over) but Mayank gave the initial blow.
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He further said, 'Mayank's economy rate was around 12 runs per over and at that time West Indies needed more runs than this. So if he had taken the wicket, the match could have gone in your favor. Gavaskar believed that one more wicket of Mayank at that crucial juncture could have put immense pressure on West Indies and made it difficult for them.
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Questions raised on this decision of Shreyas also
Gavaskar said, 'Once we get the wicket, the opposition team suddenly comes on the backfoot. A new batsman has to come. Therefore Mayank should have been tried at that time. Apart from this, I think calling Shivam Dubey to bowl in the 9th over was not the right decision. At that time the batsmen were trying to find their rhythm and hence bringing in Kuldeep would probably have been a better option.