Twitter trolls Krunal Pandya: Fans expressed anger on Twitter after Krunal Pandya failed to deliver against Australia yesterday.
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During the first T20I of the ongoing Australia’s tour of India at Brisbane yesterday, India all-rounder Krunal Pandya was taken apart by the opposition batsman as he ended up conceding 55 runs in his quota of four overs.
Bowling figures of 4-0-55-0 are the second-worst bowling figures by an Indian spinner in T20Is. Talking of fast bowlers, it is the third-worst for an Indian.
Pandya was brought into the attack in the 10th over. In his first and second over, he gave away only eight and seven runs respectively.
Having said that, it was his third over when Australia all-rounder Glenn Maxwell took the attack on Pandya, hitting him for three consecutive sixes in the 14th over. Restricted to a mere five bowling options, India captain Virat Kohli had no option that to give Pandya another over.
With Marcus Stoinis and Maxwell hitting a six each off Pandya’s last over, he conceded another 17 runs to register match figures of 4-0-55-0.
Pandya’s off-day wasn’t just restricted to his bowling. With the bat in hand, he scored 2 (4) before getting out in the business end of the match. For someone who was brought into the playing eleven in place of a regular leg-spinner in Yuzvendra Chahal, Pandya was expected to fare much better.
Speaking during the pre-match show, former India captain Sunil Gavaskar had also opined regarding Chahal being picked ahead of Pandya. Veteran India off-spinner Harbhajan Singh also lashed out at the team management for playing Pandya ahead of Chahal.
“That [team combination] is something that they have to look at. Whenever Kuldeep [Yadav] and [Yuzvendra] Chahal have bowled together, they have taken wickets, put pressure on the opposition and they have been quite successful as a pair. That is where the Indian cricket team have to think about what is the combination going forward.
“We might not see Krunal Pandya batting at 6 and bowling his four overs. He is more of a bowler who bowls a few overs here and there but in Australia, you need someone else to bowl those four overs because he doesn’t spin the ball and bowls it really, really fast. I think we will get to see Chahal in the next game and it could be in place of Krunal,” Harbhajan was quoted as saying to India Today.
Harbhajan’s comments might just hold true tomorrow for playing your best five bowlers seems to be the way to go for India in a playing XI where batsmen do not bowl at all.
Read some of the other Twitter reactions on the same below:
