Sunil Gavaskar did not mince words when discussing Arshdeep Singh and Shivam Mavi not bowling the ball in the second T20I.
Team India got off to a bad start in his T20I, second in the series against Sri Lanka. The opening duo of Kusal Mendis and Pathum Nissanka added him 80 runs after just 8.2 overs. However, in the second over of the match, a strange passage of play occurred when left-hander Arshdeep Singh conceded a hat-trick without the ball to end the over. Furthermore, Shivam Mavi also did not roll the ball in four overs. Former India captain Sunil Gavaskar was not too pleased with the number of times the bowlers crossed the line and was outspoken during the broadcast.
“Professionally, I can’t do that,” he said. We often hear players today say things are out of our hands. It’s not bowling, you can’t control the ball. What happens after you deliver the ball, what the hitter does is another matter. It’s definitely your control to make sure you don’t throw no balls,” Gavaskar told Star Sports’ commentator’s hour.
Arshdeep Singh set an undesired record by becoming the first Indian bowler to complete a trick without a ball in T20Is the hat. His left arm allowed him 19 runs from the first over, and from two of his three free kicks he allowed six and four. Incredibly, Arshdeep’s no-ball count increased to 12 when he broke the mark three times on T20Is.
Previously, Hardik Pandya had won the toss and opted to bowl in Pune. India are leading the three-game series 1-0 after scoring just a two-run victory in the first game in Mumbai.
The T20I series follows on from his ODI series of 3 games which sees India’s Big 3 Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli and KL Rahul come back to life. Hardik Pandya was named the team’s vice-captain for the series, replacing Rahul.