Former Indian batter Kris Srikkanth criticised Shivam Dube’s bowling and said that India would need to look into their sixth bowler options going forwards.
On Thursday, India put up a mammoth total of 256 at Chepauk against a Zimbabwe bowling attack that had little to no answers for an underfiring Indian batting lineup. When put into bat, Zimbabwe initially struggled against the trio of Arshdeep Singh, Jasprit Bumrah and Hardik Pandya but then two overs were given to Shivam Dube. The all-rounder was taken apart for 26 in the first and then 20 in his second – a poor performance with the ball which was punctuated by his lack of control. Srikkanth said that it was concerning to see Dube bowl the way he did.
“I don’t think bowling is a concern. It was a good batting track. My only concern is the sixth bowler. Did you see where Dube was bowling? He was bowling on the sixth stump. I have not seen bowling like that,” he said on ‘Cheeky Cheeka’.
He then said, “I think they had the luxury of runs behind them so they wanted to give some bowling practice. The question of net run rate was out of the window. It was just about winning the game,” he added.
Despite Dube’s bowling, Srikkanth said that India continues to be a ‘gun team’ and will not need a full battery of bowlers against West Indies but may have to consider their team for the semi-finals.
“I said that even after losing to South Africa, India would win in Chennai and would be on the road to win the cup. It is a gun team. Arshdeep bowling well, Bumrah bowling well, Varun and Hardik are decent. You will not need to try six bowlers against the West Indies. If needed, we can look into it when the semifinal comes,” he said.
