Former Indian head coach Anil Kumble has expressed his disappointment over Team India’s poor performance in the third T20I against England as the visitors suffered a humiliating 125-run defeat at Trent Bridge.
Speaking exclusively on JioHotstar, the former Indian spinner asserted that it was an abject surrender from the Indian team, led by Shreyas Iyer, which was unacceptable from a World Champion side.
“It was an abject surrender by the Indian team. You don’t expect a world champion side to cave in like that,” Kumble said on JioHotStar.
“The Indian batters needed to show more patience and application, but everyone just tried to attack instead of absorbing the pressure. Yes, the required rate was over 10, but someone had to take responsibility and bat deep. Instead, they went the aggressive route and paid the price with a batting collapse,” he added.
Furthermore, Kumble also slammed the team management, led by Gautam Gambhir, for their decision to promote Harshit Rana ahead of Shivam Dube in the batting order, which didn’t go down well as both of them failed to create an impact.
“In T20 cricket, you put your best batters up front. Sending out Harshit Rana to bat ahead of a more complete batter like Shivam Dube was wrong. You can’t expect a number eight guy to win you a game by sending him to bat ahead of a proven guy. That’s not how things work in modern-day cricket,” he noted.
Kumble also advised the team management to stop making changes to the bowling lineup in every game. While Prasidh Krishna and Ravi Bishnoi were axed, Prince Yadav was brought into the line-up for the third fixture.
“The Indian team has made too many changes to its lineup, and that needs to stop. The bowlers keep changing. Prasidh Krishna was dropped after one bad game against Ireland. Prince Yadav came in, bowled well, and picked three wickets in the second T20I, but India still lost that game. As a new captain, you need to stick with your five bowlers. Batters will score runs, but bowlers win you matches,” he stated.
“When you pick players, you need to keep backing them. Ups and downs are part and parcel of life. They keep happening, but that doesn’t mean failures end up with you getting dropped from the squad,” he concluded.
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