Bishnoi gave away 60 runs in his 4 overs, including a match changing 29 runs in 17th over.
Following India’s defeat in the second T20I against England in Manchester on July 4, former Indian opener Kris Srikkanth questioned the inclusion of leg-spinner Ravi Bishnoi in the team. The Men in Blue were still very much in the match, defending 190, until Bishnoi's devastating 17th over.
The equation that read 49 off 24 was reduced to a little over a run-per-ball for England when the leggie gave up 29 runs. Bishnoi's four wicketless overs yielded 60 runs as well. He bowled three back-foot no-balls in his four-over spell, and Jacob Bethell took advantage of his errors.
"It was a terrible over from Bishnoi. Giving him that over was also a wrong move by Shreyas Iyer. Bethell tore Bishnoi into pieces. That overfinished the match. Bishnoi handed over the match to England. Bishnoi didn't even play half the IPL for RR but got a place in this side, which is hard to understand.
It wasn't wrong to drop Kuldeep Yadav from the 11. Kuldeep hasn't bowled that great for a while now. But he should have been in the squad ahead of Bishnoi. Nobody knows where Bishnoi suddenly came from. Just picking him off overall stats is of no use. One should never trust overall stats. Only recent numbers should matter,” Srikkanth stated on his YouTube channel.
Indian team management was criticized by Kris Srikkanth for going in with three spinners and excluding Prince Yadav, a young pacer. The Men in Blue entered the match with just two pacers, Harshit Rana and Arshdeep Singh, and three spinners, Axar Patel, Varun Chakaravarthy, and Bishnoi, on a cloudy evening with pacer support.
"What is the need of playing two wrist spinners, Bishnoi and Varun Chakravarthy, in English conditions? Instead, Prince Yadav should have played as he has done well to. You should have played only two spinners in Varun and Axar. Why are you playing three spinners in England? Bishnoi is good only on Indian wickets.
The conditions were overcast, and there was a lot of bounce off the wicket. I don't understand why Prince Yadav didn't play in such conditions. He did well against Ireland. Why is Bishnoi playing ahead of him? I don't understand,” Srikkanth added.
Prince Yadav had taken 3/22 in his debut T20I against Ireland a few days back. India and England will play the third T20I of the five-match series on July 7 in Nottingham.