Gautam Gambhir hits out at Virat Kohli’s handling of Jasprit Bumrah: Poor captaincy

KEY STORY

• Former India opener Gautam Gambhir lashed out at Virat Kohli’s captaincy as he questioned the Indian captain for his odd usage of pace spearhead Jasprit Bumrah during the second ODI vs Australia on Sunday.

• Bumrah conceded only 7 runs in his first spell where bowled the second and fourth overs of the innings. However, he bowled one more over – the ninth – in the first Power Play. Gambhir said that he could not understand why Kohli gave Jasprit Bumrah just two overs with the new ball.

  “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,” Gambhir said 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.”

  “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.”

CONCLUSION

“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 said.

• For the second straight time, Australia batsmen piled on a mammoth target of 370-plus runs and won by 51 runs to seal the series. They had made 374 in the first match, also in Sydney, and won by 66 runs.