Former Indian cricketer Ambati Rayudu has questioned India’s decision to leave Kuldeep Yadav out of the playing XI for the fourth T20I against New Zealand. His comments came after Axar Patel and Naman Dhir struggled to contain the New Zealand batters on a ground with short boundaries. India conceded 259/7 in 20 overs, their highest-ever total conceded in T20 cricket.
The conditions demanded a different approach from the Indian bowlers, and he believed Kuldeep could have been a useful option, according to Rayudu. Speaking on Cricbuzz during the mid-innings break, Rayudu said India’s spinners needed to vary their pace and make the batters target the longer square boundaries.
That is where India could have used Kuldeep in this game to slow things up and force the batters to hit to the longer square boundaries. “The Indian bowlers rely on fuller deliveries. So when your strength is bowling full, and the boundary size is small, you know if you miss, it’s going to go big. The strengths of Arshdeep, Prince and Nitish are bowling full. And on this ground, that has been reflected in the final score,” he added. His strength is bowling hard lengths. Yorkers are not natural to him, though he tries.
Because of the short straight boundary, you have to slow it up, but when you want batters to hit to the square boundaries. Because of his high pace, “For Mayank Yadav, extra bounce works.
He said: “Axar Patel and Naman Dhir bowl fast. In the last over, where he went for runs, that is what he was doing, bowling a lot more yorkers,” said Karthik.
