India lost the second Twenty20 International (T20I) against South Africa in Cuttack on Sunday (June 12) to go 2-0 down in the five-match series. The hosts gave a poor performance in both departments of the game as South Africa won with 10 balls to spare.
Following the loss, wrist-spinner Yuzvendra Chahal came under the scanner for his ineffectiveness in both T20Is. Chahal had won the Purple Cap in this year’s IPL, in which he took 27 wickets in 17 matches. However, in the two T20Is against the Proteas, the leg-spinner bowled a total of 6.1 overs in which he conceded 75 runs and took just 1 wicket.
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Former India cricketer Wasim Jaffer while speaking to ESPNcricinfo critiqued the leg spinner's performance and stated that he has not had the same impact in international cricket as he did in the IPL.
In fact, Jaffer believes this is why Rahul Chahar was given an opportunity ahead of Chahal in last year's T20 World Cup.
“The kind of impact Yuzi has in IPL, he is not transferring that into the international games for some time now. That's the reason Rahul Chahar got picked over him in the last T20 World Cup,” said Jaffer.
The former cricketer brought up a point of concern for the spin bowler, stating that he needs to work on bowling to right-handed batters.
“Especially bowling to the right handers his numbers doesn't justify a leg spinner should have. He bowls well to the left-handers so that is something he needs to work on,” he said.
However, the former India Test opener believes the management should continue with Chahal for the rest of the series, while also suggesting the selection of Ravi Bishnoi to make it more challenging for the opposition batters.
“You need to stick with him, couple of bad games but he's a premium spinner. Ravi Bishnoi is the one you probably need to think, two-leg spinners bowling to right-hander or the left-hander will probably have more impact. Axar Patel does play because he comes at number seven, he can bat a bit, but I think it's the wickets from the spinners that you need. Spinners are expensive and not picking up wicket, I think it's going to be a lot of problems and even the third seamer hasn't done much impact. Hardik Pandya went for runs,” he noted.
(ESPNcricinfo inputs)
