"Openers playing freely, wrist spinner a must": Irfan Pathan's ideas for Indian cricket going forward
Nov 15, 2022
New Delhi [India], November 15 : Former Indian all-rounder on Tuesday took to social media to express his idea of how the Indian cricket team should move forward, saying that the openers should play freely, wrist spinner must be included in the playing eleven and the side should attack fast bowlers.
He also said that changing captaincy would not give desired results, instead, the approach needs to change.
His comments come almost a week after Men in Blue's exit from the recently-concluded ICC T20 World Cup after the loss to England in the semifinals.
"Indian cricket going forward 1) Openers playing freely, At least one of them. 2) Wrist spinner (wicket taker ) is must. 3) Tear away fast bowler. 4) please don't think changing captaincy will give us changed result. It's the approach what needs to change," tweeted Pathan.
Indian openers KL Rahul and skipper Rohit Sharma were underwhelming during the tournament. Rahul scored 128 runs in six innings with two fifties at a sub-par strike rate of 120.75 and failed to fire in his side's crucial matches. On the other hand, Rohit's form was even more underwhelming as he could score only 116 runs in six matches at an average of 19.33 and strike rate of 106.42.
The duo failed to hit big in the powerplay, with the highest score in powerplay being 46/1.
Team India did not play their wrist spin bowler, Yuzvendra Chahal for the entirety of the tournament. Wrist spinners like Wanindu Hasaranga (15 wickets, leading bowler in the tournament), Pakistan spinner Shadab Khan (11 wickets) were impressive in the tournament. India on the other hand, preferred finger spinners like Ravichandran Ashwin and Axar Patel.
This time, Men in Blue were knocked out in the semi-finals of the ICC T20 World Cup which left millions of cricket fans shattered.
Hardik Pandya will lead the Indian squad in T20Is against New Zealand with Rishabh Pant being his deputy, while Shikhar Dhawan will lead Men in Blue in the ODIs against the Kiwis. Meanwhile, Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli and KL Rahul have been rested for the New Zealand T20I and ODI series.
India will be touring New Zealand for a white-ball series comprising three T20Is and as many ODIs after the World T20 in Australia. The series will be held between November 18 to 30 and New Zealand will return to India for a white-ball series in January next year.
Squad for New Zealand T20Is: Hardik Pandya (C), Rishabh Pant (vc & wk), Shubman Gill, Ishan Kishan, Deepak Hooda, Surya Kumar Yadav, Shreyas Iyer, Sanju Samson (wk), W Sundar, Yuzvendra Chahal, Kuldeep Yadav, Arshdeep Singh, Harshal Patel, Mohd. Siraj, Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Umran Malik.
Squad for New Zealand ODIs: Shikhar Dhawan (C), Rishabh Pant (vc & wk), Shubman Gill, Deepak Hooda, Surya Kumar Yadav, Shreyas Iyer, Sanju Samson (wk), W Sundar, Shardul Thakur, Shahbaz Ahmed, Yuzvendra Chahal, Kuldeep Yadav, Arshdeep Singh, Deepak Chahar, Kuldeep Sen and Umran Malik.
