IND v AUS 2020: 'It is not T20 cricket' - Gautam Gambhir slams Virat Kohli's captaincy against Australia in the 2nd ODI
Virat Kohli and co. failed to level the three-match ODI series against Australia on Sunday, as the hosts outplayed them by 51 runs.
Former India player Gautam Gambhir criticized the Indian skipper's captaincy for giving Jasprit Bumrah only 2 overs at the start of the innings, and termed Kohli's on-field decisions as inscrutable and poor.
Australia raced on to make 59 in the powerplay unscathed. Steve Smith followed it up with another masterful innings (104 off 62), and every other batsman from the top 5 made at least a half-century to take the score to a mammoth 389-4.
Mohammed Shami and Jasprit Bumrah opened the attack for India, but the latter was replaced by Navdeep Saini in the 6th over after just a 2-over spell. Bumrah was later brought back in the 9th over and used in short spells throughout the innings.
If India failed to break the Australian partnerships in the first innings, they failed to stitch together some themselves in the second innings and were bundled 338-9 in their quota of 50 overs.
Kohli top-scored with 89 from 87 balls but couldn't prevent his team from getting knocked out with one game to spare in the ODI series.
"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," Gautam Gambhir told ESPNCricinfo.
"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," Gautam Gambhir added.
Gautam Gambhir on the all-rounder issue
One of the problems that surfaced in the first two ODIs was the lack of a 6th bowling option.
Although Hardik Pandya came out of his bowling sabbatical to bowl 4 good overs and took the prized wicket of Steve Smith and Mayank Agarwal also rolled his arm over, the Indian captain looked out of options when Australian batsmen didn't take their feet off the gas pedal.
Gautam Gambhir suggested this unavailability to be a selection error that can come back to bite India on the back.
"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," said Gautam Gambhir.
"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," Gautam Gambhir added.
India and Australia will face off in the final ODI on 2nd December before moving on to the T20I and Test series.