Yuzvendra Chahal was brought in to play for the Indian cricket squad in place of Umran Malik for the second Twenty20 international that was played against New Zealand. This was a significant alteration in the playing XI. Chahal was only given four overs to bowl in the match, despite the fact that he was brought in to contribute wickets on a surface that was considered to be “spin-friendly.” When the current captain of India’s cricket team, Hardik Pandya, questioned the former India player Gautam Gambhir about this move, Gautam Gambhir responded that it was a “huge surprise.” Gambhir went so far as to claim that he “cannot answer this issue.”
“Massive surprise. I can’t answer this question, that too on a wicket like this. In the Twenty20 format, Chahal is your top spinner option.
Just asking him to bowl two overs and in that he got the vital wicket of Finn Allen and then not utilising his whole quota of overs makes no sense to me,” Gambhir stated on Star Sports following the completion of the match.
Gautam Gambhir felt that younger players like Arshdeep Singh and Shivam Mavi need to be given an opportunity but he is also of the belief that had Chahal completed his full quota of overs, New Zealand would’ve been bowled out for 80 or 85.
The fact that Hardik opted to make Deepak Hooda bowl 4 overs was a ‘huge surprise’ for Gautam Gambhir.
“Yes, you want to provide promising young men like Arshdeep Singh and Shivam Mavi with further opportunities. On the other hand, you had the opportunity to bowl Chahal in the previous over or perhaps earlier. So it seems to me that he squandered an opportunity.
On this kind of wicket, you don’t want to let the opposition off the hook, and he could have bowled New Zealand out for maybe 80 or 85 runs. The request to have Hooda bowl four overs instead of Chahal was a massive surprise “stated Gambhir.