“Everyone Thought His Graph Will Go Up”: Gautam Gambhir Surprised By India Star’s Struggles

File photo of Gautam Gambhir© AFP

Team India levelled the three-match series 1-1 against New Zealand after a six-wicket win in a low-scoring second T20I on Sunday in Lucknow. Asked to bowl first, Team India accepted the challenge with opened arms arms and restricted the visitors for 99/8 in 20 overs. However, the hosts also faced a similar challenge during the chase and lost their openers in a quick succession. Later, Suryakumar Yadav anchored the innings and took Team India across the line with one ball to spare. Many fans, experts, and even India skipper Hardik Pandya lashed out at the pitch curator of the Ekana Cricket Stadium for coming up with such a “shocker” pitch that resulted in only 200 runs getting scored in 39.5 overs. However, former India batter Gautam Gambhir blasted India openers, especially Ishan Kishan for his inability to rotate the strike.

Batters of both teams struggled during the second T20I and the audience did not get to see even a single six during the entire match. Ishan Kishan and Shubman Gill, who are known for their aggressive batting style, were dismissed for 19 and 11 respectively. Gambhir stated that getting a boundary is not easy on such pitches, so the players should quickly learn to rotate the strike.

“I think these young players need to learn quickly how to rotate strike because, on a wicket like this, it’s not gonna be easy to go down the ground and hit those big sixes. It’s not only one chink in his armour. Indian unit as a batting unit has struggled against spin. Just the ability to not be able to manoeuvre, it’s easy to hit those big sixes but the ability to rotate strikes consistently. And there was enough purchase for spinners as well. It was pretty much evident when you got Michael Bracewell against Ishan Kishan,” Gambhir said on Star Sports.

Ishan smashed his maiden ODI double hundred against Bangladesh in December last year. However, the wicketkeeper-batter has been struggling to get a big score since then. In the last 15 T20I matches, he only managed to fetch 106 runs.

“It’s a surprise because of the way he batted in Bangladesh after scoring that double-hundred. He has struggled after that, everyone thought his graph will start growing up with the kind of innings he has played,” Gambhir said.