India’s captain Shreyas Iyer won the toss and chose to bowl first in the 1st T20I against Afghanistan at Arun Jaitley Stadium on September 13, 2026. Iyer deployed seven bowlers during Afghanistan’s first innings, including three batting all-rounders: Nitish Kumar Reddy, Abhishek Sharma and Shivam Dube. The tactical approach drew immediate scrutiny after Afghanistan’s strong finish to their innings.
Dube conceded 21 runs in that over as Afghanistan crossed the 150-run mark. Kaif questioned the reasoning behind the selection, particularly given the circumstances of the match and Dube’s recent bowling record.
“There is a time and place when these part-timers are used. If you want to bring them, bring them earlier, like close to the 10-over mark, when five wickets are already down, and Omarzai and Nabi were new at the crease. You should bring part-timers there. So, you have to decide who to use where. You have played part-timers, not proper all-rounders,” Kaif told Cricbuzz.
Kaif’s tactical assessment of the final-over decision
Kaif’s core argument centred on the timing and selection of part-time bowlers. He believed Dube should have been introduced when Afghanistan had already lost five wickets in the opening seven overs, with Mohammad Nabi and Azmatullah Omarzai building a partnership at that stage. Instead, Iyer waited until the final over to bring Dube into the attack, a decision Kaif viewed as a significant tactical error.
“These bowlers don’t even bowl 3 overs for their IPL franchises. When have we seen Dube bowl in the IPL? He doesn’t bowl. So, I think giving him the 20th over is a big mistake. The last over is usually bowled by Bumrah or Arshdeep Singh,” Kaif said.
“Here, the one facing the last over was Omarzai, who was already set after scoring his fifty. You are using Dube against him, so I think there must have been some mistake in the calculations. This was not a match where seven bowlers needed to be used. Five bowlers were enough,” he added.
Dube’s recent bowling record and Iyer’s response
Dube’s recent bowling statistics supported Kaif’s assessment. Since the start of England T20Is, Dube had bowled 9.4 overs, conceding 113 runs at an economy rate of 12.02 with four wickets. He had also bowled the final over of the T20 World Cup 2026 semi-final against England at Wankhede Stadium, conceding 22 runs. In the fifth T20I against England under Iyer’s captaincy, Dube bowled the penultimate over and again conceded 22 runs.
Nitish Kumar Reddy had conceded 30 runs in two overs, while Abhishek Sharma gave away 8 runs in one over. All of India’s frontline bowlers had completed their spells by the 19th over. Iyer’s decision to bring Dube for the final over instead of using one of the frontline bowlers or a more experienced death-overs specialist became the focal point of Kaif’s criticism.
