IND vs NZ: India's Arshdeep Singh was sent to the cleaners in the 20th over of the first innings as New Zealand batter Daryl Mitchell amassed 27 runs to help New Zealand score 176 in the 1st T20I on Friday. It was another rare off-colour outing for Singh, who was one of the big highlights for the team in the T20 World Cup 2022. After Arshdeep's outing with the ball in Ranchi, a former Indian coach has schooled the speedster on his repeated offences.
Former Indian batting coach Sanjay Bangar stated that a player may have a good start to his career, but there will be certain matches which will test him. "Arshdeep wasn’t much effective today. He is popular for those wide yorkers that trouble the batters but today, he bowled mostly in the slot. I guess he needs to think about his bowling a bit and make calls wisely. It’s a journey. You may have a good start but there will be games where your skillsets will be tested. It depends upon you how much you believe in yourself and work on the basics. If he works on these things, he might come out as a better player," Bangar said on Star Sports.
Meanwhile, former Indian batter Mohammad Kaif was also part of the discussion panel and he too shared his piece of advice. "Arshdeep has a longer run-up which itself means he might face stepping problems. He’s also wasting his energy there. So, his long run-up is the main reason behind those over-stepped no-balls. And as he changes side too much, sometimes round the wicket, sometimes over. So, he needs to work on the basics and stay a bit relaxed. He is a decent bowler but didn’t have a great day," Kaif said.
Notably, Singh achieved an unwanted record for most runs conceded by an Indian bowler in the 20th over of a T20I. The Indian team was overpowered by the Kiwi side in the opening T20I on a spin-friendly JSCA International Stadium Complex. Both the key Indian spinners Kuldeep Yadav and Washington Sundar were highly economical as they gave runs at under 5 runs and over. Meanwhile, New Zealand T20I captain and spinner Mitchell Santner gave runs at 2.80 economy and took 2 wickets as India fell 21 runs short of the 177-run target.
