Bengaluru: India head coach Rahul Dravid lauded skipper Rohit Sharma for listening to his gut call of handing the ball to leg-spinner Ravi Bishnoi ahead of a crunch second Super Over, which eventually turned out to be a match-winning move in the third T20I.
Ahead of the all-important second Super Over at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium, many felt that fast-bowler Avesh Khan would bowl for India. But Bishnoi came in to bowl and it proved to be a master-stroke as Mohammad Nabi and Rahmanullah Gurbaz holed out to long-off, thus sealing India’s win.
“I think Rohit went with his gut, he went with a call. I think he felt that the spinner had a better chance to take those two wickets. It was one of games when 11 wasn’t probably a huge score and where you know that if they batted those six balls, with the power they had, they probably would’ve got the 12 runs. You needed to take two wickets,” said Dravid in the post-match press conference.
He also praised Bishnoi for his spot-on lengths in the second Super Over. “I think it was a great call from the skipper to go with the spinner. He could’ve gone for two sixes but I thought Bishnoi was brilliant, because he bowled two superb balls. He pulled the length back.”
“If the length had gone slightly fuller, the way they were batting, on this small ground it would’ve gone for a six. I think it was really good gut call from Rohit to go for the wickets and be more positive rather than probably a safer option which people would’ve expected,” he added.
On the last ball of Afghanistan’s batting in the first Super Over bowled by Mukesh Kumar, Nabi missed the wide yorker and ran for taking runs. Wicket-keeper Sanju Samson collected the ball immediately and fired an underarm throw toward the stumps.
But the ball ricocheted off Nabi’s leg, which meant Afghanistan collected two more runs after that, much to the displeasure of Rohit and Virat Kohli. Later on, Rohit also had a word with Nabi, who claimed that there was no issue with it. Dravid played down the whole scenario by saying sometimes emotions do run high in such situations.
“It’s fine. It’s part of the game. Some frustrations at times can happen but it is okay. It hit the non-striker and then it moved and I think it is fine, you know, you can run for those. To be honest, in the first T20I there was an incident where it hit the bat of our batsman and we ran a run as well. I think there’s nothing to read into, there’s nothing in the rules that stops you from actually running those runs. That’s fine, it’s part of the game.”
“It can happen at the end. I think sometimes when you play for your country, there’s so much passion and emotion. I think it is incredible that even in dead-rubber games when it gets down to the wire, that competitiveness comes out, that passion comes out.”
“As long as it doesn’t cross the line… that’s why we have match referees and people who are there to look at these things. I think sometimes a little bit of that passion and emotion is really important. It shows that people care. I think as long as it doesn’t cross the line, it’s great.”
With India winning the series 3-0 over Afghanistan, it also means they had a look at players like Rinku, Shivam Dube, Jitesh Sharma and Yashasvi Jaiswal amongst others. It was also India’s last international series before the T20 World Cup happens in the West Indies and USA from June 1-29, which means a lot rides on the 2024 IPL for the national set-up to see who enters the 15-man squad.
“We had different people play after the last ODI World Cup for a variety of reasons. But it’s just nice to see that there are some options (ahead of T20 World Cup) who have put their hand up (for selection), and certainly shown that they’ve got skills to address. Some areas we might need some addressing in, and we were thinking about it.”
“Unfortunately, we really won’t have much cricket as a team anymore (internationally). We will obviously have the IPL, and everyone will be watching closely to see how some of those guys play and what are the slots we need to fill in the team,” concluded Dravid.
IANS
