Can’t Understand The Captaincy: Gautam Gambhir After India’s ODI Series Loss To Australia

After losing the ODI series opener by 66-runs, India failed to keep the series alive by losing the second ODI by 51 runs against Australia at the Sydney Cricket Ground, Sydney. Meanwhile, Gautam Gambhir lashed out at Indian skipper Virat Kohli for his usage of Jasprit Bumrah after India’s ODI series loss to Australia Down Under.

Australia, once again after winning the toss opted to bat first. Batting first, Australia posted a mammoth score of 389 for 4 on the scoreboard, thanks to the half-century innings of the Aussie captain Aaron Finch, David Warner, Glenn Maxwell, Marnus Labuschagne and a hundred from Steve Smith.

Team India, on the other hand, failed to achieve the huge target and eventually fell 51 runs short. Virat Kohli (89) and KL Rahul (76) played elegant innings for India. While Kohli missed out on his 44th ODI ton, he did notch up few personal records up his sleeves; for instance, becoming the fastest to 22,000 international runs.

“I can’t understand the captaincy, to be honest. We kept talking about how important is to take wickets upfront if we have to stop this kind of batting line-up and then you make your premier bowler bowl two overs. Normally, in a One Day game probably there are three spells of 4-3-3 overs. Or probably the maximum is four overs,” said Gautam Gambhir on ESPNCricinfo’s post-match show.

“But if you stop your premier fast bowler just by bowling two overs upfront with the news, I can’t understand that kind of captaincy. I probably can’t even explain that captaincy. It is not T20 cricket. I probably can’t understand the reason to be honest because that was poor captaincy,” former KKR skipper added.

Unless And Until You Don’t Judge Someone You Will Never Be Able To Find How Good He Is: Gautam Gambhir

Speaking on India’s sixth bowling option, Gambhir preferred few names who can fill that void in Team India’s line up. He further said that a player can not be judged until and unless he plays at the international level.

“They could have given someone like Washington Sundar or Shivam Dube or whoever was there in the squad to play the next game and see how they go into the one-day format. But if you don’t have anyone in Australia then it is a selection error as well,” Gambhir said.

“Unless and until you don’t judge someone you will never be able to find how good he is at the international level. India has not taken those options to Australia and those might come back to hurt them big time,” Gambhir added.