Ashwin was taken to the cleaners by the South African batters.
Opting to bat first, the Men in Blue posted 133/9 on the board with a key contribution from Suryakumar Yadav, who slammed 68 off 40 balls on a difficult track.
Defending the total, Indian bowlers reduced the Proteas to 24/3 inside the powerplay. However, the fielding was not up to the mark as Aiden Markram (52 off 41 balls) got a couple of reprieves and went on to stitch a 76-run partnership with David Miller (59* off 46 balls) to script South Africa’s victory in 19.4 overs.
After the game, however, batting legend Sunil Gavaskar played down the impact of poor fielding and categorically said that “one bowler giving 43 runs was main problem”.
Notably, veteran off-spinner R Ashwin conceded 43 runs in his four overs. While he picked a wicket in the penultimate over, the game was almost over by then.
“Things like dropping a catch and missing a run-out chance happen in cricket. We can’t blame any one player for the loss. When luck is not on your side, big players too can drop catches or miss run-out chances. I believe that the main problem when India fielded was one bowler giving away 43 runs,” Gavaskar told Aaj Tak.
When South Africa needed 25 off the last three overs, captain Rohit Sharma gave the ball to Ashwin, who gave away 13 runs and the task became a rather easy one for the Proteas.
According to Gavaskar, India should have played wrist-spinner Yuzvendra Chahal in the game against Netherlands to help him gain confidence ahead of the upcoming fixtures.
“I believe Yuzvendra Chahal should have played against Netherlands and it would have given him confidence ahead of next matches.”
India opener KL Rahul is enduring a tough time in the T20 World Cup 2022 in Australia. The right-hander has registered scores of 4, 9, and 9 in India’s three matches against Pakistan, Netherlands, and South Africa respectively.
Gavaskar feels Rahul’s issue is a mental one and held India’s mental conditioning coach Paddy Upton accountable.
“I believe mental conditioning coach Paddy Upton has not done anything with Rahul. While the batting coach can tell him his mistakes, there is a need for the mental conditioning coach to talk with Rahul. He should tell Rahul that he has got the talent and he can score big runs,” said Gavaskar.
While he acknowledged Rahul’s failures, Gavaskar still wants India to be more patient with him.
“Do you have another opener? I don’t think the Indian team has an opener, who can replace Rahul in the side. We have to show some patience with Rahul. Because we know he is a top class batsman when he is in good rhythm. He got out opening the face of the bat with one slip in place and it looked like he was giving catch practice,” he said.
However, Sunil Gavaskar went on to suggest that Rishabh Pant can open in the next game against Bangladesh.
“The match against Bangladesh is a big match since the match against Zimbabwe can be affected by weather in Melbourne. So the Indian team has to field their strongest XI against Bangladesh. They can open with Rishabh Pant against Bangladesh since the side boundaries at Adelaide are shorter and he can exploit that,” he remarked.
(Aaj Tak inputs)