Baffled by the decision to go back to Arshdeep and not Chahal in the 18th over: Mukund

New Delhi, Aug 7 (IANS) India have fallen 0-2 behind in the five-match T20I series against the West Indies, after the two-wicket loss in Guyana on Sunday.

Chasing 153 for victory, the hosts surpassed the total in 18.5 overs with just two wickets in hand. Tilak Varma (51 runs) emerged India’s top scorer while the in-form Nicholas Pooran led the West Indies’ scoring charts with 67 runs (40b, 6x4, 4x6). 

However, India had their moments to seize back the initiative, especially after spinner Yuzvendra Chahal’s 16th over resulted in the fall of three wickets. Chahal was preparing to come on and bowl the 18th over as well with the hosts still needing 21 runs for victory. But, surprisingly pacer Arshdeep Singh was handed the ball and he ended up giving away nine runs. 

JioCinema expert, Abhinav Mukund, was surprised at not having Chahal bowl the 18th over, saying: “Ten times out of ten you would have gone with Chahal and tried to close out the game there, especially with Alzarri Joseph in there. I understand that the left-hander is still there, but you’ve got Hetmyer out in the previous over bowling a full one and you have the bigger boundary to deal with.” 

“I was a bit baffled by the decision to go back to Arshdeep because he’s your strike bowler, your lead bowler. If you wanted to bowl him, you could bowl him in the 19th over, left Mukesh the last over, or even brought Arshdeep for the final over depending on the number of runs required.”  

Robbin Uthappa, said: “I have one expression – one Gen-Z expression for this moment – ‘pooof’ and not in a nice way. I am just mind-blown by how when a guy gets you three wickets in an over (Chahal took two and one was a run-out) essentially you don’t bring him back for another one and kind of close the game completely.”  

“The likes of Alzarri Joseph are not going to contend with the experience and class of a Yuzi Chahal. He knows how to bowl to these lower-order batsmen, he know how to get them out. And Akeal Hosein is not gonna take him on, not at that point with three overs to go. He would have backed himself with two overs to go perhaps, not three overs to go. So, you knew there was an error in judgement there.”