India made wholesale changes to its line up especially in their bowling. They dropped the likes of Hardik Pandya, Yuzvendra Chahal and Bhuvneshwar Kumar and brought in rookies like Umran Malik, Avesh Khan and Ravi Bishnoi for the third T20I match against England at Trent bridge. Although, it did make India’s bowling attack look weak on papers, it excited some of the Indian fans who wanted to see Umran Malik in action against the likes of Jos Buttler and Jason Roy. Former India pacer Zaheer Khan was among them and said that Malik must stick to his strengths.
“You have to use the strengths that put you here in the first place. Everyone took notice of him (Umran Malik) because he was running in hard and bowling quickly. And he was hurrying the batters, so has to stick with it. Look at these three stumps, run in as hard as possible, bowl in as hard as possible,” said Zaheer when asked about giving tip to the young pacer.
Meanwhile he added that Bhuvneshwar Kumar should have played as he was in good form in the first two games. His classic in-swinging delivery to Jos Buttler had already gone viral on social media.
“I still felt Bhuvneshwar Kumar could have continued because he was in good nick. He is someone who couldn’t have been consistent due to injury issues. He is not been playing consistently so game time for him could have been big,” Zaheer added.
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Furthermore, former England skipper Michael Vaughan also criticized Indian team management for making so many changes. He added that players like Bhuvi and Hardik Pandya should have been played as they were in good form.
“Jason Roy and Jos Buttler can breath easy when they come out to bat today as they don’t have to face Bhuvneshwar Kumar. I am surprised they have gone with so many changes. As a player’s perspective, you wanna play, you want to be in form. Bhuvi is in form, Hardik is in form. If Hardik has some issue with his body, then it is a different conversation. I would never do that. I am really looking forward to Umran Malik, but I really don’t like all this tinkering in modern game,” he told Cricbuzz.
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