Former opener Wasim Jaffer has suggested a change in India’s Playing XI for the second T20I after the hosts were outclassed by New Zealand in Ranchi on Friday. It was a bad night in the office for Hardik Pandya and Co. as they turned out to be an inferior team on the team with their below-par show with both bat and ball. The Indian pacers failed to get their variations right on a surface which was assisting the spinners more. Umran Malik and Arshdeep Singh turned out to be expensive as India leaked extra 20-25 runs which was also admitted by skipper Hardik Pandya in the post-match presentation.
Jaffer feels that tearaway pacer Umran is going to struggle in the shortest format as he doesn’t use the cutters and relies heavily on his raw pace to get the wickets.
“Unless he varies his pace, Umran Malik in this format (is likely to struggle). Even today (Friday), when he came into bowl, he should have thought cutters were probably a better option. But he doesn’t bowl that," Jaffer told ESPNCricinfo.
The veteran Indian opener pointed out that on pitches like Ranchi’s the pacers have to use the variations well as bowling at a consistent fast pace might backfire.
“Somebody bowling at 145 kph on these kinds of pitches, you like to face that kind of stuff because the ball goes off the bat so quickly,” he added.
For the second T20I between India and New Zealand, Jaffer suggested India should include Jitesh Sharma in the playing XI in place of Umran to strengthen their batting order. Jitesh impressed many in IPL 2022 with his stroke-making in the slog overs for Punjab Kings.
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“Probably Jitesh Sharma or even Prithvi Shaw in place of him. Jitesh is better option because you need somebody to bat lower down the order. I feel one batter more would solve the purpose,” he added.
The 44-year-old emphasised that Umran and Shivam Mavi bowled just three overs combined and with that combination, India missed a batter lower down the order.
“Umran Malik just bowled one over, even Shivam Mavi didn’t bowl before the 14th over. When those two bowlers only bowl three overs, then you kind of question if you were better off playing an extra batter,” he said.
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