India head coach Gautam Gambhir has been slammed by fans following Washington Sundar’s poor showing against South Africa national cricket team in the T20 World Cup Super 8 fixture on Sunday, 22 February, at the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad. Sundar was retained in the playing XI for the all-important clash as India continued to bench vice-captain Axar Patel.
However, the move failed to pay dividends, as the spin all-rounder bowled just two overs, conceding 17 runs without taking a wicket. He also scored 11 off 11 balls after being promoted to bat at number five. Explaining the decision behind Sundar’s selection at the toss, Suryakumar Yadav said it was a tactical call.
“It’s very harsh on Axar Patel, but we’re going with the same team — just a tactical decision, so no changes from the last game,” said Suryakumar at the toss.
The reason for including Sundar in place of Axar was the tactical match-up against the South African batters, who had three left-handed players in their top five. With Axar being a left-arm spinner, it would have been easier for the Proteas batters to take him on than Sundar, who was expected to take the ball away from them.
However, Sundar’s skills were not utilised effectively by captain Suryakumar Yadav. He was introduced in the seventh over of the match and conceded 11 runs against Dewald Brevis and David Miller. Sundar was immediately replaced by Varun Chakravarthy in the next over, who was also struck for 17 runs by the Proteas batters.
Despite runs being leaked from both ends, Sundar was not brought back into the attack until the 14th over, where he conceded six runs and was subsequently not given another over. As the Sundar experiment failed comprehensively, fans criticised Gambhir and the team management for the underwhelming returns.
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