India were successful in their approach of playing just one frontline seamer in the first two matches, but they failed miserably in Rajkot as England capitalized on the spin-heavy attack.
In the first three T20Is against England, India have played with only one main fast bowler in each match. Arshdeep Singh was the chosen pacer in Kolkata and Chennai, while Mohammed Shami played in Rajkot. Hardik Pandya supported the bowling attack by opening with the new ball and also bowling in the death overs as the second seamer.
Varun Chakravarthy took five wickets and troubled England’s middle order, but Liam Livingstone played a crucial knock, scoring a quick 42 runs. His innings helped England reach a total of 171, which turned out to be more than enough as India fell short by 26 runs.
Speaking on Star Sports, Former Indian Cricketer Parthiv Patel believes that India were not effective with their bowling strategy in the third T20I against England. India were successful in their approach of playing just one frontline seamer in the first two matches, but they failed miserably in Rajkot as England capitalized on the spin-heavy attack.
Parthiv felt that the extra pace bowler could have helped India to contain Liam Livingstone, who attacked the spinners. He believed that another pacer in the team would have made it much more easily controllable if he had come ahead of Livingstone’s aggressive batting. This means India missed a trick in their team selection.
“India is playing with just one fast bowler. You went with four spinners which worked in favour of Liam Livingstone. He went after them and scored runs. If another pacer was there in the Playing XI, it would have been easy to target Liam. India is missing a trick,” said Parthiv on Star Sports.
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Kevin Pietersen, who was also on the show, agreed with Parthiv Patel’s views. He supported the idea that having another fast bowler in the team could have helped India. Pietersen pointed out that Livingstone was eventually dismissed by Hardik Pandya, which proved Parthiv’s point that an extra pacer could have been more effective in controlling him.
“Parthiv is making a good point. After hitting fours and sixes, Livingstone was finally dismissed by Hardik Pandya, and that is why Parthiv said that another pacer in the team would have been good for the Indian team,” he said.
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