cricket

Updated: Feb 27, 2019 17:32 IST

India’s loss in the opening T20I against Australia in Vizag might have shocked many, but former India skipper Sunil Gavaskar feels that it could well have been a case of Virat Kohli and boys underestimating the Australians in the first game. Gavaskar pointed at the lack of batsmen in the team as the reason behind his assessment.

“The first thing that every team must realise especially in the ultra- short format of the game is never to underestimate any opponent. India may have just done that at Vizag as they went in with just three recognised batsmen with the likes of Pant, Dhoni, Karthik and Pandya to push the score along,” he wrote in his column for the Times of India.

Gavaskar also felt that the call to drop regular opener Shikhar Dhawan and hand KL Rahul the role of opening the batting didn’t go as per plan as the lower-order batsmen had their task cut-out.

“They also went in with a new opening pair, dropping Dhawan and bringing Rahul to open the batting with Rohit Sharma. Rahul batted well, but was not able to carry on after a half-century and that too with almost half the overs remaining. That meant the new boy Pant and the other two keeperbatsmen had to bulk up the innings. That didn’t quite happen and so India ended with a below par score,” he explained.

Gavaskar also felt that Australia should have cruised to the total and Glenn Maxwell shouldn’t have thrown his wicket away after getting to a fifty.

“The Australians looked as if they would canter away to an easy win but like Rahul did for India, Maxwell threw his wicket away after reaching a personal landmark. Suddenly with two new batsmen at the crease and Markande and Bumrah bowling cannily, the going looked tough. They sneaked to a last-ball win because Cummins and Richardson ran like hares between the wickets and Umesh Yadav was smashed for two boundaries,” he wrote.