Former Indian cricketers Sanjay Manjrekar and Aakash Chopra have slammed the team management for their selection decisions after the Men-in-Blue lost their first ever T20I series at home at the hands of Australia.
While Team India lost the first T20I by three wickets in Vizag, Australia won the second and last match of the T20I series by seven wickets in Bengaluru. Batting first, Team India posted a mammoth total of 190 runs in front of Australia, but otherworldly Glenn Maxwell made the mockery of Men-in-Blue’s score as the visiting team chased it down with utmost ease.
Maxwell was the star with the bat for Australia, the all-rounder smashed an unbeaten 113 runs off 55 balls with the help of nine sixes and seven fours.
In both the T20Is that Team India lost, the Men-in-Blue’s bowling attack wasn’t at its best barring a few exceptions. And reacting to Indian bowlers’ performance, Manjrekar labelled the home team’s bowling attack during the series as “the weakest bowling attack seen for a while”.
“I know they are playing around with team selection with WC [World Cup] in mind, but this has to be the weakest bowling attack seen for a while, with Krunal & Vijay Shankar as two of the five bowlers,” Manjrekar wrote from his official Twitter handle.
I know they are playing around with team selection with WC in mind, but this has to be the weakest bowling attack seen for a while, with Krunal & Vijay Shankar as two of the five bowlers.#INDvsAUS
— Sanjay Manjrekar (@sanjaymanjrekar) February 27, 2019
Meanwhile, Aakash Chopra, who donned the white jersey for India in 10 Test matches, said, “Playing only five bowlers leaves no room for anyone to have a bad day….[Yuzvendra] Chahal was expensive but India didn’t have a choice of going to anyone else. Flawed tactic in a T20 game. This is India’s second consecutive T20 series loss. #IndvAus”.
Playing only five bowlers leaves no room for anyone to have a bad day….Chahal was expensive but India didn’t have a choice of going to anyone else. Flawed tactic in a T20 game. This is India’s second consecutive T20 series loss. #IndvAus
— Aakash Chopra (@cricketaakash) February 27, 2019
After losing the T20I series 0-2, Team India will now play Australia in a five-match ODI series.