"The collapse issue has to be addressed seriously" - Abhinav Mukund on India's ODI series loss to South Africa
Opening batter Abhinav Mukund has stated that the Indian team will have to address the issue of frequent collapses that cost them the ODI series against South Africa. Mukund, who has represented the country in 7 Tests, pointed out that the problem was a major contributor to the visitors losing the series 3-0 to the Proteas.
Reviewing the ODI series on his official YouTube channel, Abhinav Mukund mentioned how the visitors' spinners failed to pick up sufficient wickets in the middle overs. Mukund stated the inability of the spinners to take wickets and that of the batters to dominate the opposition spinners went hand in hand.
"Many have spoken about the ineffectiveness of Indian spinners and there's nothing wrong in that statement. But the Indian batters too didn't play spin well - both go hand-in-hand because when their spinners bowled well we were unable to rotate strike or score boundaries. But the main column is the wickets one. South Africa's spinners bowled 65 overs, conceded 327 runs but picked up 9 wickets in the series. That was the turning point because India's spinners bowled 62 overs and conceded 343 runs - slightly more runs for a similar number of overs but the wickets column is of concern since they picked up just three. That was a big problem since you have to break partnerships in the middle-overs. When the breakthrough was needed, they were not able to provide captain KL Rahul with the same", said Abhinav Mukund.
Mukund said that South Africa's batters dominated the passage of play between overs 25 and 40, while the Men in Blue, in contrast, lost the plot during that phase. He backed his statement with numbers.
"The collapse issue has to be addressed seriously. India takes pride in how they rotate strike against spin and how they consolidate in the middle-overs. While talking about the middle-overs, it must be said that South Africa completely dominated that phase. Just take the phase between overs 25 and 40 instead of 11 and 40 - South Africa scored 273 runs losing just four wickets (throughout the series). India scored just 225 runs in that same 25-40 overs phase losing 12 wickets. So South Africa's batters definitely dominated that middle phase", said Abhinav Mukund.
"Deepak Chahar was a big silver lining" - Abhinav Mukund on Chahar's half-century for India
Terming his innings in the final ODI as a brilliant one, Abhinav Mukund lavished praise on Deepak Chahar, calling him a silver lining. Mukund opined that with the Men in Blue on the lookout for all-rounders, Chahar and Shardul Thakur offer value as bowlers who can bat. He was skeptical though over whether Chahar could bat at number 6 or 7.
Mukund said:
"Deepak Chahar was a big silver lining. But can he play at 6 or 7? Deepak Chahar is definitely a big silver lining for Indian cricket. Both Deepak Chahar and Shardul Thakur - when you are on the lookout for all-rounders, these are bowlers who contribute with the bat. And if Chahar can also take up wickets upfront then he's a massive addition for the team.
"He batted brilliantly - out of an impossible situation, he took the Indian team very close but unfortunately with 10 runs left, just close to the finish line he was dismissed and the rest of the lineup couldn't hit those runs."
The Men in Blue went down by 4 runs in the final one-dayer against South Africa, thus conceding the series 3-0. The vistiors had earlier lost the Test series by a 2-1 margin despite winning the first Test in Centurion.