India captain Suryakumar Yadav said that he and deputy Shubman Gill should have carried the responsibility of batting deeper during the team’s 51-run loss to South Africa in the second Twenty20 International on Thursday in Mullanpur, New Chandigarh. Yadav stated that Abhishek Sharma cannot win every game for India.
India folded for 162 in pursuit of a difficult target of 214 on a decent batting surface after Abhishek (17 off 8 balls) got off to a strong start but Gill (0) and captain Suryakumar (5) were dismissed during the powerplay.
“I think myself, Shubman, we could have given a good start because we can’t rely on Abhishek all the time. The way he’s been batting, he might have an off-day. Me, Shubman and few other batters should have taken it,” Suryakumar said at the post-match presentation ceremony.
“I think it would have been a smart chase. But then it’s okay, Shubman got out on the first ball. But I should have taken that responsibility, batted a little deeper. But as I said we learn, we try and do better in the next game to come,” Suryakumar took blame for this defeat while not making excuses.
Axar Patel was elevated to No. 3 as a pinch hitter, but India didn’t need his run-per-ball 21 in a high-scoring chase, and Suryakumar didn’t sound convincing when defending the strategic decision.
“We just thought in the last game that we have seen Axar bat really well in the longer format. So we wanted him to bat the same way today as well. But unfortunately, (it didn’t work) he did bat well. But we will see what’s up for us going on in the next game,” the captain made it clear that the poorly executed move would be stopped as soon as possible.
On a pitch covered with dew, where the ball became wet, Arshdeep Singh and Jasprit Bumrah gave up an astounding nine sixes between them. Both, notably Bumrah, appeared to be attempting to bowl yorkers, but the result was juicy full-tosses.
“We could have just come back nicely because we bowled first and then later on they realized how the lengths are important on this wicket. But yeah, it’s a learning process. Just learn and move forward. A little bit of dew as well and also if it wasn’t working (yorker), we should have had a second plan, but we didn’t go to that. But it’s okay. As I said, it’s a learning process.”
According to Suryakumar, the Indian squad would enhance its pace bowling by learning from South Africa.
“We learned how they bowled in the second innings. We learned from that and then we (will) try and execute in the next game.”
